Ensinar a ler sem ter aprendido a amar a leitura: a Educação Literária dos professores de Educação Básica

Este artigo procura refletir e apresentar algumas propostas metodológicas e alguns recursos científico-pedagógicos que visam responder a uma questão urgente: como compatibilizar as exigências do ensino e da aprendizagem da Literatura com o déficit de competência leitora e de memória textual dos nossos estudantes do ensino superior, nomeadamente na formação inicial de professores? Assim, divulgamos um estudo de caso que visou conhecer como os candidatos a professores fizeram a sua própria sensibilização quanto ao texto literário, na família e na escola, sublinhando-se aspetos como: tipos de leitura, suportes utilizados, constituição do corpus literário e produtos culturais direta ou indiretamente relacionados a esse corpus. Tudo isso com o fim de se propor metodologias, estratégias e recursos a serem implementados na formação de professores, visando à Educação Literária fundamental. Os resultados dão conta da memória textual comum a um grupo de 117 candidatos a professores de Educação Básica (Educadores de Infância e professores do 1º e 2º ciclos do Ensino Básico) e permitem desenhar um corpus comum à maioria desses candidatos a professores, bem como as formas de que se revestiu a recepção.Teach reading without having learned to love reading: the Literary Education of Basic education teachers Abstract This paper seeks to present and reflect on some methodological proposals and some scientific and pedagogical resources that aim to answer an urgent question: how to reconcile the teaching and learning literature demands with the undergraduate students reading and textual memory deficit? Thus, we announced a case study that aimed to understand how former teachers made their own awareness of the literary text, in the family and at school, considering such aspects: types of reading, reading holders, constitution of the literary corpus and cultural products direct or indirectly related to the corpus. Our final aim is to propose methodologies, strategies and resources to build an elementary literature education in the teachers’ training syllabus. The results showed a common textual memory among a group of 117 former teachers (kindergarten and elementary school teachers) and allowed us to draw a common corpus for most of these teachers as well as their reception. Keywords: reading; literature; education; teachers’ trainin

News media representation on EU immigration before Brexit: the ‘Euro-Ripper’ case

A higher level of mobility of people has marked the European Union (EU), with immigrants moving from one place to another, every year, looking for a better quality of life, often fleeing from war and poverty. In the wake of enlargement of the European Union, the United Kingdom (UK) experienced high inward migration. One of the main focuses of UK media coverage was immigration from Eastern European countries. The UK referendum on Brexit on 23 June 2016, was followed by an increase in hate crimes linked to migration issues and, subsequently, a media apparatus of toxic discourse and fear of the criminal ‘Other’. This paper aims to reveal how newspaper articles and personal comments written in response to these articles, represented creative and media-driven anxieties about ‘opening’ borders in the EU. The empirical sample builds on news media coverage of the ‘Euro-Ripper’ case, published in two UK newspapers—the Daily Mail and The Independent. Based on critical surveillance studies and cultural media studies, I elaborate on the notion of moral panic, dramatised by the media, which mobilises specific compositions of ‘otherness’ by constructing suspicion and criminalising inequality by particular social and ethnic groups and nationalities. I argue that the media portrays the dramatisation of transnational narratives of risk and (in)security, which redraws territorial borders and (re)define Britain’s global identity. The analysis shows how the news media in the Brexit vote continually raised and legitimised awareness related to the migration as a vehicle that enables the ‘folk-devil’ to cross borders. This context pos- tulates an ideology that converges on a relationship of intransigence and criminal convictions, in the context of a politics of inclusion and exclusion. I conclude by emphasising how the media intersects different social and geographical spaces in which migration takes place. Media-constructed categories of suspicion targets have been previously created and ‘suspect communities’ have already been socially accepted, thereby confirming and reshaping understandings of their identities and communities.This work was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [grant agreement no. 648608 to H.M.], within the project ‘EXCHANGE—Forensic geneticists and the transnational exchange of DNA data in the EU: Engaging science with social control, citizenship and democracy’ led by Helena Machado and hosted at the Communication and Society Research Centre, Institute for Social Sciences of University of Minho (Portugal)

Sputter deposition of MgO thin films: the effect of cation substitution

The importance of thin films relies on their ability to modify in an easy and, in most cases, cost efficient way the surface properties of bulk materials and thus, their functionality. Thin films have been deposited already for a long time. Sputter deposition is a widely used technique since it combines versatility, control over the composition and microstructure, relatively high deposition rates and conceptual simplicity. Most of the new technologically interesting materials have complex chemistry and crystalline structure. An example of the increased complexity is the ternary metal oxides of the group Mg-M-O, where M represents a metal other than Mg. This class of materials has gained considerable research attention the last years and Mg-M-O films find application in catalysis and surface protection, as well as in high-k dielectrics, ionic conductors, high Tc superconductors, and thin film batteries. The goal of the present thesis is to contribute towards understanding the fundamental growth mechanisms of sputter deposited ternary oxide films with the general formula Mg-M-O (where M is a metal different than Mg). The key objectives of the study are: (i) To establish the relation between the deposition conditions and the chemical composition in the Mg-M-O films and through this, achieve an efficient and accurate control over the film stoichiometry. (ii) To understand the effect of the deposition conditions and the chemical composition on the structure formation and crystallographic properties of Mg-M-O films. (ii) To elucidate the effect of chemistry and microstructure on a number of functional properties of the Mg-M-O films. Films are deposited employing reactive magnetron sputtering (in an Ar-O2 atmosphere) from two (Mg and M) confocally arranged magnetron sources. This multisource approach facilitates a large flexibility with respect to the chemical compositions that can be accessed. In addition, the confocal arrangement of the sources leads to an off-normal deposition flux providing a tool to control and tune the crystallographic properties of the films. The metals (M) Al, Cr, Ti, Y and Zr are chosen to systematically vary key physical parameters of the substituting element in the metal sublattice of the Mg-M-O films, i.e. the valence electron number and the atomic size, and to study their largely unexplored effect on the film microstructure and crystallographic properties

The role played efflux systems on the resistance to antibiotics

A resistência a várias classes de antibióticos, i.e., multi-resistência (MDR), constitui um dos maiores problemas a nível terapêutico, no tratamento de diversas infecções. A importância que este mecanismo de resistência adquiriu no contexto hospitalar, reflectese no elevado número de casos relativos a multi-resistência em isolados clínicos. Os mecanismos de resistência mais comuns em bactérias são: i) a inactivação do antibiótico pelas enzimas bacterianas; ii) mutações em genes estruturais ou reguladores da proteína alvo; iii) alterações na membrana externa, que podem provocar um decréscimo da permeabilidade aos diversos compostos, sendo este caso mais relevante em bactérias Gram-negativas, dada a sua estrutura membranar; e iv) extrusão do antibiótico da célula por activação de sistemas de efluxo. Estes últimos sistemas encontram-se normalmente associados a uma sobre-expressão de transportadores proteicos, designados bombas de efluxo, que reconhecem e expelem eficientemente uma vasta gama de compostos estruturalmente distintos. Estes transportadores, que se encontram envolvidos na extrusão de substratos tóxicos, encontram-se quer em baterias Gram positivas, quer em bactérias Gram negativas, bem como em células eucariotas. Estes sistemas podem ser específicos para um substrato ou podem transportar uma série de compostos estruturalmente distintos, incluindo antibióticos de classes diferentes. Os sistemas de efluxo descritos até à presente data podem ser classificados em cinco famílias distintas, nomeadamente: (1) “Major Facilitator Superfamily” (MFS); (2) “Small Multi-drug Resistance (SMR) family”; (3) “Multidrug And Toxic compound Extrusion (MATE) family” (21); (4) “Resistance-Nodulation-Division (RND) superfamily”; and (5) “Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)-Binding Cassette (ABC) superfamily”. Estes sistemas utilizam a força motriz de protões, como fonte de energia, com a excepção da família ABC, que utiliza a hidrólise do ATP para fazer a extrusão dos substratos. Um dos mais recentes desafios nesta área tem sido o desenvolvimento de novos compostos que inibam estes sistemas de efluxo e consequentemente possam potenciar a actividade de antibióticos que sejam coadministrados na terapêutica, podendo desta forma dar uma nova utilidade clínica aos antibióticos já existentes. Infelizmente e apesar de vários inibidores de bombas de efluxo (aqui designados como EPIs – “efflux pump inhibitors”) terem sido sintetizados, até àpresente data, nenhum destes inibidores resultou num composto com utilidade clínica, que pudesse ser aplicado no tratamento de infecções provocadas por bactérias multiresistentes. No entanto, a procura continua e de entre os vários tipos de EPIs caracterizados, podemos encontrar uma grande e variada gama de compostos, como: análogos peptídicos; as fenotiazinas; um grupo de produtos naturais produzidos por Streptomyces spp, (“benastatins”); compostos derivados ou homólogos da tetraciclina; compostos isolados de extractos de plantas; a quinolina e alguns dos seus derivados; arilpiperidinas and arilpiperazinas; EPIs produzidos por microrganismos e um grupo distinto de compostos, os desacopladores de energia. Se estes EPIs puderem ser utilizados como “helper compounds”, em combinação com os antibióticos aos quais o microrganismo é resistente, então o tratamento destas infecções poderá ser bem sucedido. Esta nova abordagem pode permitir a re-utilização de vários antibióticos que são substratos de bombas de efluxo, bem como permitir o controlo do aparecimento e disseminação de estirpes que apresentam uma multi-resistência mediada por sistemas de efluxo. No entanto, ainda pouco se sabe acerca dos mecanismos e função destes sistemas. Desta forma, torna-se necessário desenvolver novos métodos que permitam caracterizar esta resistência, mediada pelos sistemas de efluxo. Nos últimos anos, uma série de métodos têm sido desenvolvidos com este intuito e podem contribuir para a rápida identificação de estirpes multi-resistentes. De entre a metodologia usualmente utilizada, o método que tem recebido particular destaque, tem sido o que se baseia no efluxo do brometo de etídeo. O brometo de etídeo é um conhecido substrato de bombas de efluxo e dadas as suas propriedades fluorescentes, permite a monitorização em tempo real dos sistemas de efluxo que se encontram activados numa dada estirpe bacteriana. A criação e o desenvolvimento deste e de outros métodos, torna-se portanto uma importante ferramenta para estudar e caracterizar grandes colecções de isolados clínicos que apresentam um fenótipo multi-resistente. A combinação das novas abordagens descritas anteriormente, i.e., a caracterização de isolados que apresentam um fenótipo multiresistente mediado por sistemas de efluxo, aliada à busca de novos e efectivos EPIs, pode contribuir para o controlo e tratamento eficaz de infecções multi-resistentes. O futuro o dirá…Multidrug resistance (MDR) to antibiotics presents a serious therapeutic problem in the treatment of infections. The importance of this mechanism of resistance in clinical settings is reflected in the increasing number of reports of MDR isolates. The most common mechanisms of resistance to antibiotics in bacteria are: i) the inactivation of the antibiotic by bacterial enzymes; ii) mutations in the structural or regulatory genes of the target protein; iii) alterations in the outer membrane that will contribute to decreased drug permeability, being this more preponderant on Gram-negative bacteria, due to their outer membrane structure; and iv) extrusion of the antibiotic from the cell by the activation of the efflux systems. These last systems are often associated with the over-expression of transporters (efflux pumps) that recognize and efficiently expel from the cells a wide gamut of structurally unrelated compounds. These transporter proteins involved in the extrusion of toxic substrates are found in both Gram-positive and -negative bacteria as well as in eukaryotic organisms. They can be specific for one substrate or may transport a range of structurally distinct compounds, including antibiotics of multiple classes. There are five major families of efflux transporters, described until the present date, namely, the: (1) Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS); (2) Small Multidrug Resistance (SMR) family; (3) Multidrug And Toxic compound Extrusion (MATE) family; (4) Resistance Nodulation Division (RND) superfamily; and (5) Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)- Binding Cassette (ABC) superfamily. All these systems utilize the proton motive force as an energy source, apart from the ABC family, which utilizes ATP hydrolysis to drive the export of substrates. One of the recent challenges in this area is to develop new compounds that inhibit these efflux systems and subsequently potentiate the activity of co-administered antibiotics thus extending the clinical utility of existing antibiotics. Unfortunately and although several efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) have been characterized, none of them has yet resulted in a clinical useful compound that could be applied in the clinical setting to treat MDR infections. However, the search continues and among the distinct types of EPIs we can find a large and distinct number of compounds, such as: peptidomimetics; phenothiazines; a class of natural products produced by Streptomyces spp., the benastatins; tetracycline derivatives/homologues; compoundsisolated from plant extracts; quinoline and its derivatives; arylpiperidines and arylpiperazines; microbial-derived EPIs and a distinct group of compounds, the energy uncouplers. If these EPIs be used as “helper compounds” in combination with antibiotics to which the organism is initially resistant, then the required cure may be achieved. This new approach will bring back to action the re-use of various antibiotics that are affected by the efflux systems as well as the control of the emergence and the dissemination of MDR-associated efflux strains. However, we know very little about the mechanisms and function of these efflux systems. New methods to assess this efflux-mediated resistance are therefore needed. In the last few years, a series of methods have been developed and may contribute to the rapid screening of MDR strains. Among the commonly used methods, one has received particular relevance, and it is based on the efflux of ethidium bromide. Ethidium bromide is a common substrate of efflux pumps and due to its fluorescent properties, it allows the monitoring in a real time basis of the efflux systems that are activated on a bacterial strain. The design and improvement of this and other methods is therefore one important tool to screen large collections of clinical isolates showing an MDR phenotype. The combined approaches, i.e., screening of MDR-efflux mediated isolates and the search for new and effective EPIs can bring to date the control and treatment of MDR infectious. The future will show us the results

A Study on Youth´s Political Satisfaction: The Case of Portugal

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Marketing IntelligencePolitical brands have taken their campaigns into social media, in an effort to keep up with the times and connect with younger users. Obama and Trump are examples of successful cases where their online presence translated into the ballot boxes. The present study aims to address the youth engagement and satisfaction with Portuguese political brands on Twitter and their likeness to vote for candidates and parties considering the sentiment results of the last 3 election periods – presidential, local and legislative. The conducted sentiment analysis demonstrated that the various types of users allocate a negative sentiment for most political brands. No positive sentiment was identified within the 29 analysed actors and parties. Most political brands with a neutral sentiment were part of the left-wing, in which youth showed more voting intentions. Liberal Initiative (IL) presented itself as an exception from the right-wing with the same results. Furthermore, it was also conceived that it is not possible to predict election results through Twitter, but this social medium gives a close idea of the users’ collective mind

The antimycobacterial activity of thioridazine derivatives against drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis: in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo studies

O objectivo principal desta tese foi o de avaliar a acção da tioridazina (TZ), bem como de compostos derivados desta, obtidos por manipulação química, como agentes com actividade contra Mycobacterium tuberculosis, em particular contra M. tuberculosis multi-resistente (MDR-TB). Desta forma foram obtidos vinte e dois derivados e efectuados testes de toxicidade e mutagenicidade pelo método de exclusão com azul de trypan (realizado em linfócitos humanos) e o teste de Ames, respectivamente. Todos os derivados não tóxicos e não mutagénicos foram testados in vitro contra estirpes de Staphylococcus aureus resistente à meticilina (MRSA), que foi o microrganismo modelo utilizado durante todo o trabalho, e estirpes de MDR-TB. Visto que a tuberculose é uma infecção do macrófago alveolar, estes estudos foram subsequentemente aplicados a macrófagos infectados. Desta forma, é importante analisar a actividade que estes compostos apresentam dentro do macrófago, local onde normalmente a micobactéria se encontra. Iniciaram-se estudos animais com a TZ, de forma a verificar a eficácia deste composto em curar murganhos Balb/C infectados com M. tuberculosis H37Rv ATCC27294. Desta forma foi possível optimizar parâmetros, tais como, a via de infecção, a concentração de composto a administrar, entre outros. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que dos vinte e dois derivados nenhum apresentava toxicidade ou efeitos mutagénicos, nas condições testadas. Desta forma, os vinte e dois derivados foram seleccionados para estudos in vitro contra estirpes de S. aureus e de M. tuberculosis. Dos estudos in vitro foi possível verificar que seis derivados apresentaram uma maior actividade do que a TZ e desta forma foram seleccionados para os estudos ex vivo. Quando testados em macrófagos infectados três derivados demonstraram um efeito marcado na activação das células fagocitárias (“enhancement of the killing activity”), sendo um dos derivados ainda mais activo do que a TZ. Dos estudos em animais, foi possível seleccionar as condições a serem implementadas em estudos futuros com os derivados mais activos. De todos os resultados obtidos durante esta tese foi possível desenvolver um modelo baseado na interacção do macrófago com a bactéria e a subsequente acção destes compostos. O modelo desenvolvido (“macrophage model”) pode assim contribuir para clarificar o que ocorre a nível intracelular aquando da adição dos compostos ao meio de cultura.The main objective of this Thesis was to evaluate thioridazine (TZ) and chemically derived derivatives for anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis activity in particular against multi-drug resistant (MDR) M. tuberculosis. Twenty-two TZ derivatives were obtained and screened for toxicity and mutagenicity by the trypan blue exclusion assay in human lymphocytes and the Ames test, respectively. The derivatives that were devoid of any toxicity and mutagenicity were then tested against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) used as a model during the entire work, and against antibiotic resistant M. tuberculosis (MDR-TB) strains in vitro and subsequently in the macrophage that has phagocytosed the organism. Since tuberculosis is an infection of the alveolar macrophage it is important to evaluate the activity of these compounds inside the phagocytic cell where the mycobacteria are to be found. Thioridazine was also tested for its ability to cure the mouse of infection by M. tuberculosis. Therefore, animal studies using Balb/C mice infected with M. tuberculosis H37Rv ATCC27294 strain were initiated to parameterize the route of infection, dose of compound to be administered, among others. The results obtained showed that from the twenty-two TZ derivates none was toxic or mutagenic under the conditions tested. Therefore, all the twenty-two derivatives were selected for in vitro evaluation against S. aureus and M. tuberculosis strains. From the in vitro results six derivatives showed greater activity than TZ and were selected for ex vivo studies. Three of these derivatives were shown to enhance the macrophage killing activity and one of the derivatives was even more active than TZ. From the animal studies it was possible to select the conditions to apply in further studies with the most active derivatives. From all the data obtained during this Thesis it was possible to develop a model based on the macrophage interaction with the bacteria and the subsequent action of the compounds. The macrophage model can elucidate what takes place inside the human macrophage when these compounds are added to the medium. Due to the uniqueness of the approaches developed during the Thesis research, other potential sources of anti-tubercular compounds were explored: plants and organosilicon compounds (SILA). These studies demonstrated that extracts from the nuisance plant Carpobrotus edulis could enhance the killing of intracellular bacteria such as MDR-TB and MRSA. In addition, the extract was shown to modulate the immune system thereby indicating its potential use for cellular immune deficient disorder as well as render MDR mouse lymphoma cells carrying the human mdr1 gene completely susceptible to cytotoxic drugs to which they were initially resistant. The results of this component of my research have resulted in the design of new experiments which are now being carried out by another Ph.D. student in our Unit and at the Medical University of Szeged, Hungary. In conclusion, the results obtrained from my Thesis research has paved the way for clinical trial consideration of the many compounds studied shown to have significant intracellular activity against XDR-TB/MDR-TB at concentrations that are non-toxic and that can be readily achieved in the infected human

A vida nos subúrbios: memórias de uma outra Belo Horizonte

Em 1993, coordenei os trabalhos de pesquisa histórica do Inventário do Patrimônio Cultural realizado pelo Departamento de Patrimônio Histórico de Belo Horizonte. Iniciamos o trabalho através da rua da Bahia e depois partimos para atuar em três frentes: Lagoinha,Floresta e no bairro Primeiro de Maio. As reflexões que apresento neste artigo são frutos dessa experiência no campo mais propriamente dito da preservação e da memória. O texto defende duas posições: as possibilidades oferecidas por uma história de Belo Horizonte a partir da trajetória de seus espaços, particularmente de seus bairros populares, e uma política mais ampla de preservação que trabalhe com esses mesmos universos identitários