Building scientific knowledge based on the solution of clinical cases: A contemporary learning process

The construction of scientific knowledge based on the solution of clinical cases, also called problem-situation or case study, is a contemporary methodology, centered on the student, problematizing, teaching-learning, which allows to know the previous knowledge of the group in the face of the presented situation, as well as identifying learning needs, building new meanings and knowledge, in addition to developing specific skills for self-learning. Strategically, it is the insertion, during a course, of a social material (texts, audios, printed matter, videos), whose analysis and discussion allow to contextualize the theoretical content. This work aims to present an experience in the construction, application and evaluation of clinical cases aimed at students in the fifth period of the dentistry course at Itpac - Porto Nacional in 2020. Clinical cases were previously screened by the teacher of endodontics at the multidisciplinar clinic at Itpac - Porto Nacional and presented to students in the classroom. The students were instructed to organize themselves in groups, a time of 1 hour was established for discussion of clinical cases and websites, scientific articles and books were made available to assist in solving the proposed activity. After the end of the established time, each group presented the diagnosis of each clinical situation presented. Based on this experience, it is possible to conclude that the use of clinical cases as a pedagogical practice brings students closer to the social reality and leads them to build networks of knowledge, making them active subjects in the learning process, without renouncing the depth and specificity knowledge that a dental student needs to develop

USE OF HYDROGENATION IN THE STUDY OF THE PROPERTIES OF AMORPHOUS-GERMANIUM TIN ALLOYS

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Childhood obesity, thyroid function, and insulin resistance – is there a link? A longitudinal study

Serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels are frequently elevated in obese children and are most likely to be associated with insulin resistance. However, clinical relevance of this association remains unclear. OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of hyperthyrotropinemia; to analyze the relationship between TSH and homeostasis model assessment - insulin resistance (HOMA-IR); and to verify whether TSH levels and HOMA-IR vary with weight loss in obese children. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Retrospective longitudinal study with data from baseline and 1 year after lifestyle intervention in a pediatric obese group (344 children were recruited and 100 among them completed follow-up). For postintervention analysis, three groups were considered according to body mass index-standard deviation score (BMI-SDS) variations: ≤-0.5 (significant weight loss); 0.5-0 (weight loss); and >0 (weight gain). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 19.0®. RESULTS: The prevalence of increased TSH levels was 9.3%. At baseline TSH (p=0.007), fT4 (p=0.006), and HOMA-IR (p<0.001) were positively correlated to BMI-SDS (n=344). Weight reduction was verified in 67 out of 100 cases but significant loss was present in only 21 cases. Decreases in both TSH and BMI-SDS were independently associated with decreases in HOMA-IR (p=0.005 and p=0.016, respectively). There was no correlation between TSH and BMI-SDS variation. Significant decreases in the HOMA-IR (p=0.006) were only achieved in the significant weight loss group. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of hyperthyrotropinemia was lower than previously reported. However, cutoff values were adjusted to pubertal stage, suggesting an over report in other studies. Insulin resistance and TSH were positively correlated, independent of body status. Although weight loss was not associated with TSH variation, a decrease in TSH levels was independently associated with decreases in HOMA-IR.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On a new conformal functional for simplicial surfaces

We introduce a smooth quadratic conformal functional and its weighted version $$W_2=\sum_e \beta^2(e)\quad W_{2,w}=\sum_e (n_i+n_j)\beta^2(e),$$ where $\beta(e)$ is the extrinsic intersection angle of the circumcircles of the triangles of the mesh sharing the edge $e=(ij)$ and $n_i$ is the valence of vertex $i$. Besides minimizing the squared local conformal discrete Willmore energy $W$ this functional also minimizes local differences of the angles $\beta$. We investigate the minimizers of this functionals for simplicial spheres and simplicial surfaces of nontrivial topology. Several remarkable facts are observed. In particular for most of randomly generated simplicial polyhedra the minimizers of $W_2$ and $W_{2,w}$ are inscribed polyhedra. We demonstrate also some applications in geometry processing, for example, a conformal deformation of surfaces to the round sphere. A partial theoretical explanation through quadratic optimization theory of some observed phenomena is presented.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "Curves and Surfaces, 8th International Conference", June 201

Stress-induced electron emission from nanocomposite amorphous carbon thin films

Traditionally, the emission of electrons from materials have been explained using either the Fowler-Nordheim emission mechanism where high electric fields are used to extract electrons from surfaces or using conventional thermal emission where high currents are used to 'boil' off electrons to vacuum. In this letter, we propose an alternative mechanism for electron emission from highly compressive thin films based on stress-induced 'band structure' modification of nano-ordered sp(2) regions in the thin films. Experimental results are recorded which show that the localized compressive stress governs electron emission in the amorphous carbon thin films studied here rather than the surface nanostructures/features or the diamond-like sp(3) hybridized bond component. This analysis is in agreement with the concept of an internal or nongeometric field enhancement from sp(2) nanostructures giving rise to high dielectric inhomogeneity within the carbon thin film. The results presented could be extended to explain the anomalous field emission behavior of carbon nanotubes. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.81585385

Pressure-induced physical changes of noble gases implanted in highly stressed amorphous carbon films

Noble gases (Ar, Kr, and Xe) were trapped in an amorphous carbon matrix in the 1-11-GPa pressure range. Extended and near-edge x-ray-absorption spectroscopies indicate clustering of noble gases induced by the host matrix internal pressure. Simultaneously, the matrix pressure promotes a shift of the noble-gas core-level binding energy of similar to1 eV. The Auger parameter reveals that both the initial state and the host relaxation terms contribute to the binding-energy shift. Ab initio calculations performed on an Ar-7 cluster and on Ar atoms clustered in aromatic molecules support the experimental findings.68

SHORT-RANGE ORDER IN AMORPHOUS GERMANIUM-NITROGEN ALLOYS STUDIED BY EXTENDED X-RAY-ABSORPTION FINE-STRUCTURE SPECTROSCOPY

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Application of amorphous carbon based materials as antireflective coatings on crystalline silicon solar cells

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)We report on the investigation of the potential application of different forms of amorphous carbon (a-C and a-C:H) as an antireflective coating for crystalline silicon solar cells. Polymeric-like carbon (PLC) and hydrogenated diamond-like carbon films were deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) was deposited by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique. Those three different amorphous carbon structures were individually applied as single antireflective coatings on conventional (polished and texturized) p-n junction crystalline silicon solar cells. Due to their optical properties, good results were also obtained for double-layer antireflective coatings based on PLC or ta-C films combined with different materials. The results are compared with a conventional tin dioxide (SnO(2)) single-layer antireflective coating and zinc sulfide/magnesium fluoride (ZnS/MgF(2)) double-layer antireflective coatings. An increase of 23.7% in the short-circuit current density, J(sc), was obtained using PLC as an antireflective coating and 31.7% was achieved using a double-layer of PLC with a layer of magnesium fluoride (MgF(2)). An additional increase of 10.8% was obtained in texturized silicon, representing a total increase (texturization + double-layer) of about 40% in the short-circuit current density. The potential use of these materials are critically addressed considering their refractive index, optical bandgap, absorption coefficient, hardness, chemical inertness, and mechanical stability. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3622515]1104Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Brazilian financial research agency MCTConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq