(un)childhood: performing the voices and times of childhood through relational video-making

This practice-based PhD is comprised of two interrelated elements: (i) ‘(un)childhood’, a 53’ video-essay shown on two screens; and (ii) a 58286 word written thesis. The project, which is contextualised within the tradition of artists working with their own children on time-based art projects, explores a new approach to timebased artistic work about childhood. While Stan Brakhage (1933-2003), Ernie Gher (1943-), Erik Bullot (1963-) and Mary Kelly (1941-) all documented, photographed and filmed their children over a period of years to produce art projects (experimental films and a time-based installation), these projects were implicitly underpinned by a construction of childhood in which children, shown as they grow, represent the abstract primitive subject. The current project challenges the convention of representing children entirely from the adult’s point of view, as aesthetic objects without a voice, as well as through the artist’s chronological approach to time. Instead, this project focuses on the relational joining of the child’s and adult’s points of view. The artist worked on a video project with her own son over a four-and-a-half year period (between the ages of 5 and 10) through which she developed her ‘relational video-making’ methodology. The video-essay (un)childhood performs the relational voices of childhood as resulting from the verbal interactions of both children and adults. The non-chronological nature of(un)childhood offers an alternative to the linear-temporal approach to the representation of childhood. Through montage and a number of literal allusions to time in its dialogue, (un)childhood performs the relational times of childhood by combining children’s lives in the present with the temporal dimensions that have traditionally constructed childhood: past, future and timeless

Indolo[2,3-a]quinolizidines and derivatives: Bioactivity and asymmetric Synthesis

Corynantheine alkaloids with a tetracyclic indole[2,3-a]-quinolizidine motif are an important issue in academia and in the life science industries due to their broad bioactivity profile. In particular, the main biological effects described for indoloquinolizidines include analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive, and antiarrhythmic activities, as well as inhibition of multiple ion channels, affinity for opioid receptors, and activity against Leishmania. For that reason, in the last decades, numerous efforts have been invested in the development of novel synthetic strategies to obtain the indole[2,3-a]-quinolizidine system. This review focuses on the synthetic methodologies developed to target the most important alkaloids of this family, and highlights the potential use of these alkaloids or analogs to treat several diseases, ranging from cancer to neurodegenerative disorders

Changes in postural sway behavior across the life span

The present study aimed to investigate human balance control by assessing postural sway on three groups representing three stages of life (6-12, 19-40 and 65-74 years old). There were 14 individuals in each group and they were tested during upright bipedal stance with either eyes open or closed. Focus was given to multiple sway indices representing multi-dimensional features of postural sway in quiet stance and included: the center of pressure area, amplitude, root mean square (RMS), velocity, jerkiness, and sample entropy. Results confirmed that children and seniors swayed more (p\u3c.004), faster (p\u3c.001) and their body sway was shakier (p\u3c.001) than young adults. Seniors also presented faster (p\u3c.006) and shakier (p\u3c.001) sway than children and a more unpredictable pattern of body sway in time (p\u3c.002) than children and young adults. In addition, children presented a more random anterior-posterior sway (p\u3c.034) and a more regular medio-lateral sway (p\u3c.043) than young adults, and a higher synchronization between anterior-posterior and medio-lateral body sway (p\u3c.012) than young adults and seniors. We also observed that postural control of children and young adults becomes relatively more challenged in experimental situations when eyes were closed for most postural indices. In conclusion, this study suggests that multi-dimension posturography is sensitive to detect subtle age-related changes in the postural behavior and each stage of life may have their own signature patterns of postural behavior. Therefore, we expect that quantifications of this nature may be used to assess not only postural instability and fall risk but also to aid the testing of the efficacy of balance interventional protocols

Traceability statement for the determination of total chromium fraction in serpentine soils by atomic absorption spectrometry

The purpose of this work is to contribute for the metrological traceability statement of chemical measurements. Traceability statement for total chromium mass fraction in serpentine soils was developed. Accordingly, the quantity values requiring a high degree of control are calibration and quality control standard solutions, matrix certified reference material and the calibration curve model fit

A new species of Honduran \u3ci\u3eStrongylaspis\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Prioninae)

Strongylaspis antonkozlovi Galileo and Santos-Silva sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Prioninae) is described from Cusuco National Park in Honduras, becoming the second species of the genus known in that country. The new species is compared to S. bullata Bates, 1872, the most similar species

First report of Meloidogyne naasi parasitizing turfgrass in Portugal

In an exploratory sampling of a football field in Porto, Portugal, the root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne naasi, previously unreported from the Iberian Peninsula, was detected. Diagnosis was based on the analysis of perineal patterns and esterase phenotypes of females excised from grass roots, morphometrics and molecular analysis (PCR with specific primers and analysis of partial 28S sequences obtained by amplification using the primers D2A/D3B) of second- stage juveniles (J2) extracted from soil. When collected in water, J2 aggregated into a worm-star. Endospores of Pasteuria penetrans were frequently found attached to the J2. To our knowledge, this is the first report of M. naasi in Portugal and in the Iberian Peninsula, and the first report of worm-star formation in Meloidogyne.The authors would like to thank Dr. M. Luísa Moura and José F. Azevedo for collaboration in sampling and sample processing. This work was supported by the strategic program UID/BIA/04050/2019 (POCI01-0145-FEDER-007569), funded by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation For Science and Technology (FCT) I.P. and by the ERDF through the COMPETE2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI)

Immunization and Aging: a Learning Process in the Immune Network

The immune system can be thought as a complex network of different interacting elements. A cellular automaton, defined in shape-space, was recently shown to exhibit self-regulation and complex behavior and is, therefore, a good candidate to model the immune system. Using this model to simulate a real immune system we find good agreement with recent experiments on mice. The model exhibits the experimentally observed refractory behavior of the immune system under multiple antigen presentations as well as loss of its plasticity caused by aging.Comment: 4 latex pages, 3 postscript figures attached. To be published in Physical Review Letters (Tentatively scheduled for 5th Oct. issue