Aulas Práticas de Laboratório como Método de Ensino de Genética Molecular

A genética é considerada uma das mais difíceis ciências para estudantes do ensino superior; assim, diferentes métodos de ensino devem ser utilizados para facilitar o seu processo de ensino-aprendizagem e tornar os alunos os protagonistas de seus saberes. Neste relato, foi avaliado o emprego de aulas práticas de laboratório como método de ensino na disciplina de Genética Molecular por meio das seguintes técnicas avaliativas: quizzes, questionário e observação em sala de aula. O conjunto de dados coletados em uma turma ao longo de um semestre demonstrou que o uso de aulas práticas favoreceu a aprendizagem dos conteúdos e procedimentos da pesquisa científica em genética molecular, além de aumentar a motivação dos alunos e promover o trabalho em grupo.Genetics is considered one of the most difficult sciences for undergraduate students, so different teaching methods should be used to facilitate its teaching-learning process and make the students the protagonists of their knowledge. In this report, the use of laboratory practical classes as a teaching method in the Molecular Genetics course was evaluated through the following evaluation techniques: quizzes, questionnaire, and classroom observation. The data collected in a class during one semester demonstrated that the use of practical classes favored the learning of the contents and procedures of the scientific research in molecular genetics, besides increasing students’ motivation and promoting group work

Convalescent plasma for COVID-19 in hospitalised patients : an open-label, randomised clinical trial

Background: The effects of convalescent plasma (CP) therapy in hospitalised patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remain uncertain. This study investigates the effect of CP on clinical improvement in these patients. Methods: This is an investigator-initiated, randomised, parallel arm, open-label, superiority clinical trial. Patients were randomly (1:1) assigned to two infusions of CP plus standard of care (SOC) or SOC alone. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with clinical improvement 28 days after enrolment. Results: A total of 160 (80 in each arm) patients (66.3% critically ill, 33.7% severely ill) completed the trial. The median (interquartile range (IQR)) age was 60.5 (48–68) years; 58.1% were male and the median (IQR) time from symptom onset to randomisation was 10 (8–12) days. Neutralising antibody titres >1:80 were present in 133 (83.1%) patients at baseline. The proportion of patients with clinical improvement on day 28 was 61.3% in the CP+SOC group and 65.0% in the SOC group (difference −3.7%, 95% CI −18.8–11.3%). The results were similar in the severe and critically ill subgroups. There was no significant difference between CP+SOC and SOC groups in pre-specified secondary outcomes, including 28-day mortality, days alive and free of respiratory support and duration of invasive ventilatory support. Inflammatory and other laboratory marker values on days 3, 7 and 14 were similar between groups. Conclusions: CP+SOC did not result in a higher proportion of clinical improvement on day 28 in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 compared to SOC alone

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

estudos artísticos

O tropicalismo arranca em 1967, através do corpo: a música de Caetano Veloso e Gilberto Gil, os vestíveis de Hélio Oiticica, as propostas teatrais de José Celso Martinez Corrêa e os cenários de Hélio Eichbauer. Hoje as coisas são um pouco mais complexas. Em tempo de redes sociais, os aspirantes ao poder fazem uso da sua imediatez para suscitarem reações epidérmicas, superficiais, populistas e de grande instantaneidade. A boçalidade triunfa nas caixas de comentários, e com mais alguns perfis falsificados podem manipular-se plebiscitos, movimentos secessionistas, ou, e também censurar-se exposições de arte. Nesta variação do fascismo, a epiderme eletrificada das redes sociais estrutura-se como uma poderosa arena onde se aparenta uma falsa democracia. Talvez a arte continue a ser um reduto para reflexão, mas vemos que a censura se manifesta hoje de modo talvez mais eficaz, silenciando artistas e professores, através da pressão mediatizada, da emoção do momento. Para isto é necessária a atenção consciente da arte, dos artistas, e também dos arte-educadores: enfrenta-se uma massa cada vez mais informe, alienada e despojada de reflexão para além do imediato.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Práticas artísticas no ensino básico e secundário

O terceiro número da Revista Matéria-Prima afirma-se como mais uma plataforma de disseminação e de registo na área da educação e ensino artísticos. Ao propor-se o desafio da Matéria-Prima está a lançar-se um repto de intervenção e partilha a três tipos de intervenientes na educação pela arte: — Os professores, profissionais experimentados; — Os que se iniciam na profissão, através da frequência de mestrados e estágios formativos; — Os investigadores e professores universitários desta área. Esta chamada coloca em cima da mesa a partilha das experiências didácticas em sala de aula, a pesquisa sobre práticas profissionais. Experiências, algumas bem-sucedidas, outras menos, porventura, todas com um mérito substancial, que é a vontade de estabelecer comunidade entre os interessados pela educação artística. Este conjunto de textos poderá ajudar a cartografar práticas que se observam bastante distintas, entre as realidades dos países representados, Portugal, Espanha, Brasil, Argentina. Observa-se também que a prática dos educadores está longe de ser homogénea. É surpreendente determinar as diferenças entre contextos e regiões. Se umas são mais metódicas, e por isso consistentes, outras abrem-se à descoberta. Em todas um ponto de encontro: a revista Matéria-Prima, que assim assume cada vez mais o seu nome como um desígnio de intervenção.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states