Bayesian spatio-temporal models for mapping TB mortality risk and its relationship with social inequities in a region from Brazilian Legal Amazon

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As atitudes dos alunos para com a Matemática: Um estudo em duas turmas do 6.º ano do Ensino Básico

O presente artigo irá incidir sobre um estudo realizado ao longo do ano letivo de 2017/2018, no âmbito da “Prática de Ensino Supervisionada II” do Mestrado em Ensino do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e de Matemática e Ciências Naturais no 2.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. Este estudo teve como objetivo conhecer as atitudes dos alunos de uma turma do 6.º ano do ensino básico para com a Matemática antes e após o período de intervenção, de modo a compará-las e a compreender que aspetos da prática interventiva podem ter influenciado eventuais mudanças de atitude. Para tal, optou-se por uma metodologia quantitativa e, como método de recolha de dados, foram aplicados questionários, com itens fechados e abertos, antes e após o período de intervenção, assim como foram realizadas entrevistas aos alunos que mais diferenças mostraram entre estes dois períodos. Embora não se tenha verificado uma diferença significativa nas atitudes dos alunos para com a disciplina, em termos gerais o grupo evoluiu no que diz respeito a este domínio. Os resultados, para além de mostrarem que os alunos se sentem mais apoiados quando estão mais professoras presentes na sala de aula, também evidenciam que o tipo de atividades que foram desenvolvidas durante o período de intervenção – atividades exploratórias com recurso a materiais manipuláveis – constitui uma motivação extra para que os discentes se envolvam no trabalho matemático em sala de aula.Abstract This article will focus on a study carried out during 2017/2018 academic year, within the scope of the “Supervised Teaching Practice II” of the Master in Teaching in the 1st Cycle of Basic Education and Maths and Science in the 2nd Cycle of Basic Education. This study aimed to know the attitudes of students in a 6th grade class of basic education towards mathematics before and after the intervention period, in order to compare them and to understand which aspects of the interventional practice may have influenced possible changes in attitudes. To this end, a quantitative methodology was chosen and, as a method of data collection, questionnaires were applied, with closed and open items, before and after the intervention period, as well as interviews with students that most showed differences between these two periods. Although there was no significant difference in the students' attitudes towards the discipline, in general terms the group has evolved with respect to this domain. The results, in addition to showing that students feel more supported when there are more teachers present in the classroom, also show that the type of activities that were developed during the intervention period - exploratory activities using manipulable materials - constitutes extra motivation for students to get involved in mathematical work in the classroom.Résumé Cet article se concentrera sur une étude réalisée au cours de l'année académique 2017/2018, dans le cadre de la «Pratique pédagogique supervisée II» du Master en enseignement du 1er cycle de l'enseignement de base et des mathématiques et sciences naturelles du 2e Cycle d'éducation de base. Cette étude visait à connaître les attitudes des élèves d'une classe de base de 6e année à l'égard des mathématiques avant et après la période d'intervention, afin de les comparer et de comprendre quels aspects de la pratique interventionnelle ont pu influencer possibles changements d'attitude. À cette fin, une méthodologie quantitative a été choisie et, comme méthode de collecte des données, des questionnaires ont été appliqués, avec des éléments fermés et ouverts, avant et après la période d'intervention, ainsi que des entretiens avec des étudiants qui ont le plus montré des différences entre cettes deux périodes. Bien qu'il n'y ait pas de différence significative dans les attitudes des étudiants vis-à vis de la discipline, en général le groupe a évolué par rapport à ce domaine. Les résultats, en plus de montrer que les élèves se sentent plus soutenus lorsqu'ils sont plus d'enseignants présents dans la salle de classe, montrent également que le type d'activités développées au cours de la période d'intervention - activités exploratoires utilisant du matériel manipulable - constitue également motivation supplémentaire pour les élèves à s'impliquer dans des travaux mathématiques en classe.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Immobilization and application of the recombinant xylanase GH10 of Malbranchea pulchella in the production of xylooligosaccharides from hydrothermal liquor of the eucalyptus (Eucalyptus grandis) wood chips

Xylooligosaccharides (XOS) are widely used in the food industry as prebiotic components. XOS with high purity are required for practical prebiotic function and other biological benefits, such as antioxidant and inflammatory properties. In this work, we immobilized the recombinant endo-1,4-β-xylanase of Malbranchea pulchella (MpXyn10) in various chemical supports and evaluated its potential to produce xylooligosaccharides (XOS) from hydrothermal liquor of eucalyptus wood chips. Values >90% of immobilization yields were achieved from amino-activated supports for 120 min. The highest recovery values were found on Purolite (142%) and MANAE-MpXyn10 (137%) derivatives, which maintained more than 90% residual activity for 24 h at 70 °C, while the free-MpXyn10 maintained only 11%. In addition, active MpXyn10 derivatives were stable in the range of pH 4.0–6.0 and the presence of the furfural and HMF compounds. MpXyn10 derivatives were tested to produce XOS from xylan of various sources. Maximum values were observed for birchwood xylan at 8.6 mg mL−1 and wheat arabinoxylan at 8.9 mg mL−1, using Purolite-MpXyn10. Its derivative was also successfully applied in the hydrolysis of soluble xylan present in hydrothermal liquor, with 0.9 mg mL−1 of XOS after 3 h at 50 °C. This derivative maintained more than 80% XOS yield after six cycles of the assay. The results obtained provide a basis for the application of immobilized MpXyn10 to produce XOS with high purity and other high-value-added products in the lignocellulosic biorefinery field.The authors gratefully acknowledge FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation, grants No: 2018/07522-6) and FCT (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032206)—transnational cooperation project EcoTech, and National Institute of Science and Technology of Bioethanol, INCT, CNPq 465319/2014-9/FAPESP n ◦ 2014/50884- 5) for financial support. Research scholarships were granted to RCA, DA, and JCSS by FAPESP (Grant No: 2020/00081-4, 2020/15510-8, and 2019/21989-7, respectively), to CCVD and VEP by CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Finance Code 001).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Metabolic control of T cell immune response through glycans in inflammatory bowel disease

Mucosal T lymphocytes from patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) were previously shown to display a deficiency in branched N-glycosylation associated with disease severity. However, whether this glycosylation pathway shapes the course of the T cell response constituting a targeted-specific mechanism in UC remains largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that metabolic supplementation of ex vivo mucosal T cells from patients with active UC with N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) resulted in enhancement of branched N-glycosylation in the T cell receptor (TCR), leading to suppression of T cell growth, inhibition of the T helper 1 (Th1)/Th17 immune response, and controlled T cell activity. We further demonstrated that mouse models displaying a deficiency in the branched N-glycosylation pathway (MGAT5-/-, MGAT5+/-) exhibited increased susceptibility to severe forms of colitis and early-onset disease. Importantly, the treatment of these mice with GlcNAc reduced disease severity and suppressed disease progression due to a controlled T cell-mediated immune response at the intestinal mucosa. In conclusion, our human ex vivo and preclinical results demonstrate the targeted-specific immunomodulatory properties of this simple glycan, proposing a therapeutic approach for patients with UC.We thank Dr. Hiroaki Korekane and Fumi (RIKEN) for support in preparation of the fluorescent oligosaccharide acceptor substrate. We thank Dr. Michael Pierce for kindly providing the MGAT5 knockout mice. We also thank Paula Paíga (REQUIMTE/LAQV) for technical support with the HPLC system. The Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto integrates the i3S research unit, which is partially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). This article is a result of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000029, supported by the Norte Portugal Regional Programme (NORTE 2020) under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement through the European Regional Development Fund. This work was also funded by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) funds through the COMPETE 2020—Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through the FCT in the framework of the project (POCI-01/ 0145-FEDER-016601 and PTDC/DTP-PIC/0560/2014). S.S.P. acknowledges the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization (ECCO) for ECCO Grant 2017, the Broad Medical Research Program at the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, and the Portuguese Group of Study in IBD (GEDII) for funding. A.M.D. [PD/BD/105982/2014], A.C. [SFRH/BPD/91623/2012], and M.S.P. [SFRH/ BD/110148/2015] received funding from the FCT. M. Lima thanks the CHP for the research support.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Health-related quality of life and utilities in gastric premalignant conditions and malignant lesions: a multicentre study in a high prevalence country

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A recent review of economic studies relating to gastric cancer revealed that authors use different tests to estimate utilities in patients with and without gastric cancer. Our aim was to determine the utilities of gastric premalignant conditions and adenocarcinoma with a single standardized health measure instrument. METHODS: Cross-sectional nationwide study of patients undergoing upper endoscopy (n=1,434) using the EQ-5D-5L quality of life (QoL) questionnaire. RESULTS: According to EQ-5D-5L, utilities in individuals without gastric lesions were 0.78 (95% confidence interval: 0.76-0.80), with gastric premalignant conditions 0.79 (0.77-0.81), previously treated for gastric cancer 0.77 (0.73-0.81) and with present cancer 0.68 (0.55-0.81). Self-reported QoL according to the visual analogue scale (VAS) for the same groups were 0.67 (0.66-0.69), 0.67 (0.66-0.69), 0.62 (0.59-0.65) and 0.62 (0.54-0.70) respectively. Utilities were consistently lower in women versus men (no lesions 0.71 vs. 0.78; premalignant conditions 0.70 vs. 0.82; treated for cancer 0.72 vs. 0.78 and present cancer 0.66 vs. 0.70). CONCLUSION: The health-related QoL utilities of patients with premalignant conditions are similar to those without gastric diseases whereas patients with present cancer show decreased utilities. Moreover, women had consistently lower utilities than men. These results confirm that the use of a single standardized instrument such as the EQ-5D-5L for all stages of the gastric carcinogenesis cascade is feasible and that it captures differences between conditions and gender dissimilarities, being relevant information for authors pretending to conduct further cost-utility analysis

Search for supersymmetry in events with b-quark jets and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for physics beyond the standard model based on events with large missing transverse energy, at least three jets, and at least one, two, or three b-quark jets. The study is performed using a sample of proton-proton collision data collected at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2011. The integrated luminosity of the sample is 4.98 inverse femtobarns. The observed number of events is found to be consistent with the standard model expectation, which is evaluated using control samples in the data. The results are used to constrain cross sections for the production of supersymmetric particles decaying to b-quark-enriched final states in the context of simplified model spectra.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review

<i>Gaia</i> Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties

Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7. Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release. Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue. Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues – a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) – and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of ∼3000 Cepheid and RR-Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr−1 for the proper motions. A systematic component of ∼0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of ∼94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr−1. For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is ∼10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to ∼0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7. Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data