Democratizar a jurisdição constitucional? O caso das audiências públicas no Supremo Tribunal Federal

Este artigo se insere no conjunto de análises acerca do fenômeno da judicializacão da política no Brasil, considerando a atuação do Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) no exercício do controle de constitucionalidade das leis e atos normativos. O objeto de análise são as audiências públicas realizadas pelo STF no período de 2007 a 2014, com o objetivo de verificar em que medida elas vêm se convertendo em um mecanismo capaz de ampliar o caráter deliberativo da corte e fomentar o diálogo e a interface entre atores estatais e societais, ampliando, assim, a base informacional e a legitimidade de suas decisões. Foram analisadas todas as audiências públicas, excluídas aquelas para as quais os dados não estavam disponíveis. O estudo envolveu análise em perspectiva comparada, longitudinal e transversal, e análise documental a partir de um quadro analítico construído em torno das dimensões de interesse. Foi realizada uma caracterização pormenorizada das audiências públicas – regras, temas, atores, formatos e dinâmica de interação. Além disso, foram identificados os elementos comuns aos eventos, suas singularidades, as alterações ao longo do tempo, os avanços e os limites no que se refere ao uso que a corte vem realizando das audiências públicas. O artigo inova ao explorar as possibilidades teóricas associadas à análise das relações entre constitucionalismo e democracia, partindo da tradição dicotômica que se estabeleceu desde as origens das democracias constitucionais até perspectivas dialógicas mais recentes. Considerando as peculiaridades que cercam a atuação do STF nos últimos anos, destaca-se a urgência desse debate para o caso brasileiro e propõe-se a análise do funcionamento de um mecanismo institucional de introdução relativamente recente. Até onde temos conhecimento não há nenhum trabalho que tenha se proposto a uma análise tão pormenorizada das audiências públicas do STF.

Analysis Of Opportunities And Challenges For The Water-energy Nexus

The economic development, the population growth and the urbanization will increase water and energy world demand. As a consequence, the conflict between water resources and energy production will be intensified and the environment will be impacted by this competition. In addition to the direct influence of human activities, climate changes and extreme climate events have affected the water availability and, as consequence, the energy production. The aims of this article are to present the water-energy nexus and the importance of making an integrated planning between water and energy sectors. This article also presents the main challenges and opportunities that researchers, companies and governments will find in order to guide more sustainable regarding the water-energy nexus. Thus, it is indispensable to consider the water-energy nexus in planning and government decision-making at all levels, from municipal to national.3793

Vesicular stomatitis virus chimeras expressing the oropouche virus glycoproteins elicit protective immune responses in mice

Oropouche virus (OROV) infection of humans is associated with a debilitating febrile illness that can progress to meningitis or encephalitis. First isolated from a forest worker in Trinidad and Tobago in 1955, the arbovirus OROV has since been detected throughout the Amazon basin with an estimated 500,000 human infections over 60 years. Like other members of the famil

Screening of Bacillus sp. isolated from coral Siderastrea stellata for antimicrobial activity against enteropathogenic strains of Salmonella and Escherichia coli / Screening de Bacillus sp. isolados do coral Siderastrea stellata para atividade antimicrobiana contra linhagens enteropatogênicas de Salmonella e Escherichia coli

Siderastrea stellata is a coral endemic to Brazilian waters and is widely distributed throughout the coast of Bahia state. Exposure of the coral to pathogens stimulates the production of important enzymes by associated symbiont microorganisms. Besides being natural sources of bioactive compounds, these microorganisms possess characteristics that help them survive under extreme conditions. Sixty-eight bacterial strains isolated from the S. stellata coral were analyzed for antimicrobial activity against ten pathogenic bacteria. The cultivation of marine isolates was carried out in liquid or solid seawater. Eight isolates produced antimicrobial compounds against at least two of the ten pathogenic bacteria tested. When isolates were grown in Mueller-Hinton broth, a distinct biocidal spectrum was observed, indicating that the culture medium directly influences the production of antimicrobial compounds. Through molecular characterization of activity-positive isolates, they were identified as belonging to the genus Bacillus. The bioactive compounds produced by the Bacillus stratosphericus SS85 and SS69 strains were stable after storage time for three months. This is the first paper reporting on the antimicrobial activity of microorganisms isolated from coral Siderastrea stellata

Clinical and microbiological characteristics of patients colonized or infected by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia: is resistance to sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim a problem?

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has emerged as an important opportunistic pathogen in the last decade. Increased resistance to sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (SMX/TMP) has been reported in S. maltophilia strains in the past few years, leading to few therapeutic options. We conducted a prospective multicenter study at two Brazilian teaching hospitals that identified S. maltophilia isolates and evaluated their antimicrobial susceptibility profile, SMX/TMP resistance genes and their clonality profile. A total of 106 non-repeated clinical samples of S. maltophilia were evaluated. Resistance to SMX/TMP was identified in 21.6% of the samples, and previous use of SMX/TMP occurred in 19 (82.6%). PCR detected the sul1 gene in 14 of 106 strains (13.2%). Of these isolates, nine displayed resistance to SMX/TMP. The resistant strains presented a polyclonal profile. This opportunistic pathogen has emerged in immunocompromised hosts, with few therapeutic options, which is aggravated by the description of emerging resistance mechanisms, although with a polyclonal distribution profile

Subtelomeric I-Scel-Mediated Double-Strand Breaks Are Repaired by Homologous Recombination in Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi chromosome ends are enriched in surface protein genes and pseudogenes (e.g., trans-sialidases) surrounded by repetitive sequences. It has been proposed that the extensive sequence variability among members of these protein families could play a role in parasite infectivity and evasion of host immune response. In previous reports we showed evidence suggesting that sequences located in these regions are subjected to recombination. To support this hypothesis we introduced a double-strand break (DSB) at a specific target site in a I cruzi subtelomeric region cloned into an artificial chromosome (pTAC). This construct was used to transfect T. cruzi epimastigotes expressing the I-Scel meganuclease. Examination of the repaired sequences showed that DNA repair occurred only through homologous recombination (HR) with endogenous subtelomeric sequences. Our findings suggest that DSBs in subtelomeric repetitive sequences followed by HR between them may contribute to increased variability in T. cruzi multigene families.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Univ Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado, Lab Genet Mol Dr Yunis Turbay, Ciencias Salud, Barquisimeto, VenezuelaNIAID, Lab Malaria & Vector Res, NIH, Rockville, MD USAUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, Sao Paulo, BrazilConsejo Nacl Invest Cient & Tecn, Inst Invest Ingn Genet & Biol Mol, Lab Biol Mol Enfermedad Chagas, Buenos Aires, DF, ArgentinaJ Craig Venter Inst, Dept Infect Dis, Rockville, MD USAFdn Inst Estudios Avanzados, Ctr Biotecnol, Caracas, VenezuelaUniv Estadual Campinas, Fac Ciencias Med, Dept Patol Clin, Campinas, SP, BrazilDepartamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia e Parasitologia, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilFAPESP: 11/51693-0FAPESP: 11/51475-3CNPq: 306591/2015-4Web of Scienc

INFLUÊNCIA DA POLIMERIZAÇÃO NA ESTABILIDADE DE COR DE RESINAS COMPOSTAS

Objetivo: Avaliar a influência da polimerização na estabilidade de cor de resinas compostas.Métodos: Avaliou-se o efeito da polimerização na cor de 14 resinas compostas: Empress Direct - A2E; Empress Direct - A2D; Empress Direct - Trans Opal; Vittra - EA2; Vittra - DA2; Vittra - Trans OPL; Essentia – LE; Essentia – LD; Essentia - OM; Filtek – AE2; Filtek - A2D; Filtek –AT; Grandioso - A2; FillMagic - B2 Dentin. As resinas compostas foram inseridas em incremento único (n=5) em matrizes de 5X2mm (diâmetro x altura). Foi realizada a avaliação de cor pelos parâmetros CIE L*a*B* (AC) em triplicata com um espectrofotômetro (Easy Shade, Vita). As resinas compostas foram ativadas de acordo com as recomendações dos fabricantes e avaliadas imediatamente e após 24h em estufa a 37oC. Foi calculado o ΔE, analisado por 2-way ANOVA e teste de Bonferroni (p<0,05).Resultados: Observou-se interação significativa entre resina*tempo, todas resinas compostas apresentaram mudança de cor após a polimerização.Conclusão: Pode-se concluir que há mudança de cor após a ativação das resinas compostas e essa cor pode mudar após 24h em umidade

Anatomy and evolution of telomeric and subtelomeric regions in the human protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi

Background: the subtelomeres of many protozoa are highly enriched in genes with roles in niche adaptation. T. cruzi trypomastigotes express surface proteins from Trans-Sialidase (TS) and Dispersed Gene Family-1 (DGF-1) superfamilies which are implicated in host cell invasion. Single populations of T. cruzi may express different antigenic forms of TSs. Analysis of TS genes located at the telomeres suggests that chromosome ends could have been the sites where new TS variants were generated. the aim of this study is to characterize telomeric and subtelomeric regions of T. cruzi available in TriTrypDB and connect the sequences of telomeres to T. cruzi working draft sequence.Results: We first identified contigs carrying the telomeric repeat (TTAGGG). of 49 contigs identified, 45 have telomeric repeats at one end, whereas in four contigs the repeats are located internally. All contigs display a conserved telomeric junction sequence adjacent to the hexamer repeats which represents a signature of T. cruzi chromosome ends. We found that 40 telomeric contigs are located on T. cruzi chromosome-sized scaffolds. in addition, we were able to map several telomeric ends to the chromosomal bands separated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. the subtelomeric sequence structure varies widely, mainly as a result of large differences in the relative abundance and organization of genes encoding surface proteins (TS and DGF-1), retrotransposon hot spot genes (RHS), retrotransposon elements, RNA-helicase and N-acetyltransferase genes. While the subtelomeric regions are enriched in pseudogenes, they also contain complete gene sequences matching both known and unknown expressed genes, indicating that these regions do not consist of nonfunctional DNA but are instead functional parts of the expressed genome. the size of the subtelomeric regions varies from 5 to 182 kb; the smaller of these regions could have been generated by a recent chromosome breakage and telomere healing event.Conclusions: the lack of synteny in the subtelomeric regions suggests that genes located in these regions are subject to recombination, which increases their variability, even among homologous chromosomes. the presence of typical subtelomeric genes can increase the chance of homologous recombination mechanisms or microhomology-mediated end joining, which may use these regions for the pairing and recombination of free ends.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, São Paulo, BrazilFIOCRUZ MG, Ctr Pesquisas Rene Rachou, Belo Horizonte, MG, BrazilUniv Fed Minas Gerais, ICB, Dept Parasitol, Belo Horizonte, MG, BrazilUCLA, Barquisimeto, VenezuelaFdn Inst Estudios Avanzados IDEA, Caracas, VenezuelaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

The influence of genetic stability on Aspergillus fumigatus virulence and azole resistance

Genetic stability is extremely important for the survival of every living organism, and a very complex set of genes has evolved to cope with DNA repair upon DNA damage. Here, we investigated the Aspergillus fumigatus AtmA (Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated, ATM) and AtrA kinases, and how they impact virulence and the evolution of azole resistance. We demonstrated that A. fumigatus atmA and atrA null mutants are haploid and have a discrete chromosomal polymorphism. The ?atmA and ?atrA strains are sensitive to several DNA-damaging agents, but surprisingly both strains were more resistant than the wild-type strain to paraquat, menadione, and hydrogen peroxide. The atmA and atrA genes showed synthetic lethality emphasizing the cooperation between both enzymes and their consequent redundancy. The lack of atmA and atrA does not cause any significant virulence reduction in A. fumigatus in a neutropenic murine model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis and in the invertebrate alternative model Galleria mellonela. Wild-type, ?atmA, and ?atrA populations that were previously transferred 10 times in minimal medium (MM) in the absence of voriconazole have not shown any significant changes in drug resistance acquisition. In contrast, ?atmA and ?atrA populations that similarly evolved in the presence of a subinhibitory concentration of voriconazole showed an ~5-10-fold increase when compared to the original minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values. There are discrete alterations in the voriconazole target Cyp51A/Erg11A or cyp51/erg11 and/or Cdr1B efflux transporter overexpression that do not seem to be the main mechanisms to explain voriconazole resistance in these evolved populations. Taken together, these results suggest that genetic instability caused by ?atmA and ?atrA mutations can confer an adaptive advantage, mainly in the intensity of voriconazole resistance acquisition.We thank the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientí fi co e Tecnológico, Brazil, for fi nancial support. F.R. and B.H.F. were supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Neurological Impacts of Covid-19 and Worldwide Scientific Production about the Subject: A Bibliometric Analysis

Introduction: The novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was first reported by officials in Wuhan City, in December 2019. It has rapidly spread with confirmed cases in almost every country across the world and has caused a global public health crisis.¹ The epidemiological update of the World Health Organization on9th March 2021 showed that over 2.7 million new cases were reported. In this article, a biblometrical analysis of trending topics and what is being researched regarding COVID-19 and its neurological involvement is done. Methods: This research was conducted on the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS). For research in WoS, keywords in English were used, according to DeCS - Descriptors in Health Sciences. The search strategy with Boolean operators was: TS = (SARS-CoV-2 OR COVID-19) AND TS=(Neurologic Findings OR Neurology OR Neurologic Manifestations). Results: In total, 392 scientific productions were identified and included in this bibliometric analysis. The studies were publishedin the period between March 2020 and March 2021, with records prevalent in the themes of clinical neurology (n=234) and neurosciences (n=134), as well as several other areas. The thirty studies collected a total of 3395 citations, with variations from 1433 to 26 and average of 113 citations per study. All werepublished in 2020, with bigger prevalence in July (nine articles) and June (six articles). Conclusion: It is expected that this bibliometric survey will serve as a manner of presenting the main topics of study within neurology before COVID-19, in addition providing guidance for future research.