Confiança como fator de redução da vulnerabilidade humana no ambiente de trabalho

O ambiente de trabalho predominante atualmente nas organizações complexas pode tanto atuar em favor da maior produtividade quanto debilitar a coesão e os laços de cooperação no trabalho. Neste último caso, faz emergir nos profissionais das empresas uma sensação de vulnerabilidade, traduzida por relacionamentos mais efêmeros e superficiais, que arrefecem a ação das pessoas. Neste artigo, trabalhou- se com a premissa de que o estabelecimento de um ambiente de confiança pode neutralizar essa sensação. O estudo teve como fim investigar se os profissionais percebem fragilidade nas relações de trabalho, como reagem à situação, e quais suas influências no processo de gestão. O material discursivo, recolhido de entrevistas em profundidade com gerentes de organizações multinacionais e nacionais de grande e médio porte, traz explicações para os motivos que levam à instalação da sensação de vulnerabilidade no trabalho. Essas reflexões permitem inferir que é possível instalar procedimentos de gestão, padrões de comportamento e cultura organizacional que atuem na reversão desse estado de coisas e desenvolvam ambientes de trabalho mais propícios.The currently predominant working environment in complex organizations may either operate in favor of enhanced productivity or weaken the cohesion and ties of cooperation in the workplace. In the latter case it causes professionals to experience a feeling of vulnerability, which translates into more ephemeral and superficial relationships that have the effect of moderating people's actions. This article worked with the assumption that establishing an atmosphere of trust may neutralize this feeling. The purpose of the study was to investigate if professionals perceive any fragility in their working relations, how they react to the situation and how it influences the management process. The material collected from in-depth interviews with managers of major and medium-size multinational and national organizations provides explanations for the reasons that lead to the installation of a feeling of vulnerability at work. These reflections allow us to infer that it is possible to install management procedures, behavior standards and an organizational culture that operate to reverse this state of affairs and to develop a favorable working environment

Voriconazole treatment of Candida tropicalis meningitis: persistence of (1,3)-b-D-glucan in the cerebrospinal fluid is a marker of clinical and microbiological failure

Introduction: Infections are still the most common complications of cerebral shunt procedures. Even though fungal etiologies are considered to be rare, they are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Due to their uncommonness, diagnostic procedures and optimal therapy are poorly defined. We report a case of Candida tropicalis infection of ventriculo-peritoneal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt in a 49-year-old immune competent male treated with voriconazole (VOR). Methods: Microbiological and CSF markers (1,3-b-D-glucan-BDG) of fungal infection, biofilm production capacity, sensitivity of serial isolates of the pathogen, and the concentration of the antifungal drug have been monitored and related to the clinical course of this infection. Results: Despite appropriate treatment with VOR, in terms of adequate achieved CSF drug concentrations and initial effective therapeutic response, loss of VOR susceptibility of the C tropicalis and treatment failure were observed. Conclusion: Biofilm production of the C. tropicalis isolate might have had a significant role in treatment failure. Of interest, clinical and microbiological unfavorable outcome was anticipated by persistence of BDG in CSF. Rising titers of this marker were associated with relapse of fungal infection

Not only a problem of fatigue and sleepiness: Changes in psychomotor performance in Italian nurses across 8-h rapidly rotating shifts

Although many studies have detailed the consequences of shift work in nurses concerning health, fatigue, sleepiness, or medical errors, no study has been carried out trying to disentangle the contribution of sleepiness and fatigue associated to shift work from the attentional performance. The aim of this pilot study is (A) to investigate the effects of an 8-h rapidly rotating shift on fatigue and sleepiness among staff nurses and (B) how these factors affect their psychomotor performance. Fourteen nurses were selected for a within-subject cross-sectional study according to this sequence of shifts: morning–afternoon–night, which were compared as function of tiredness, sleepiness, and performance at the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT). Subsequently, a within-subject Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) evaluated if the observed differences between shifts persist when the contribution of sleepiness is controlled. Our results clearly indicate that night shifts are associated with significant greater sleepiness and tiredness, and worsened performance at the PVT. As hypothesized, ANCOVA showed that these differences disappear when the contribution of sleepiness is controlled. Results point to a lower psychomotor performance in night compared to day shifts that depends on sleepiness. Hence, interventions to minimize the consequences of the night shift should consider a reduction of sleepiness

Flower Bud Differentiation in Quercus suber L.

Background and Purpose: Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is one of the most important forest species growing in the Western Mediterranean region. This investigation intends to assess the timing of flowering differentiation of cork oak and contribute to the deepening of the knowledge about the process of the sexual reproduction of the species. Materials and Methods: In 2010 four trees were selected (9, 14, 24, 25) from a plot of 25 trees located at Quinta da Serra, Portugal. A total of 240 buds were collected from these four trees, on three days (8, 14 and 23 March), from 4 branches per tree and 5 positions per branch for the assessment of meristem differentiation. Results: Meristem differentiation analysed on the sampling days revealed there were only vegetative structures by 8 March; a few male and female primordia on 14 March; and fully differentiated reproductive structures on 23 March. Conclusions: Flowering sex determination of cork oak occurs about one month before the flowering onset

Drug repositioning: auranofin as a prospective antimicrobial agent for the treatment of severe staphylococcal infections

Auranofin, (AF), a gold(I) complex in clinical use for the therapy of rheumatoid arthritis, is reported here to produce remarkable bactericidal effects in vitro against Staphylococcus sp. Noticeably, a similar antimicrobial action and potency are also noticed toward a few methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains but not toward Escherichia coli. The time and concentration dependencies of the antimicrobial actions of AF have been characterized through recording time kill curves, and a concentration dependent profile highlighted. Overall, the present results point out that auranofin might be quickly and successfully repurposed for the treatment of severe bacterial infections due to resistant Staphylococci

Imaging spectroscopic performances for a Si based detection system

We present the imaging and spectroscopic capabilities of a system based on a single photon counting chip (PCC) bump-bonded on a Si pixel detector. The system measures the energy spectrum and the flux, produced by a standard mammographic tube. We have also made some images of low contrast details, achieving good results

Implementing fuzzy polynomial interpolation (FPI) and fuzzy linear regression (LFR)

This paper presents some preliminary results arising within a general framework concerning the development of software tools for fuzzy arithmetic. The program is in a preliminary stage. What has been already implemented consists of a set of routines for elementary operations, optimized functions evaluation, interpolation and regression. Some of these have been applied to real problems.This paper describes a prototype of a library in C++ for polynomial interpolation of fuzzifying functions, a set of routines in FORTRAN for fuzzy linear regression and a program with graphical user interface allowing the use of such routines

Power quotients of plactic-like monoids

Funding: Antoine Abram was partially supported by CRSNG BESC D grant. Florent Hivert was partially supported by OpenDreamKit Horizon 2020 ERI (#676541). James D. Mitchell was partially supported by OpenDreamKit Horizon 2020 ERI (#676541). Jean-Christophe Novelli was partially supported by the ANR program CARPLO.In this paper we describe the quotients of several plactic-like monoids by the least congruences containing the relations aσ(a) = a with σ(a) ≥ 2 for every generator a. The starting point for this description is the recent paper of Abram and Reutenauer about the so-called stylic monoid which happens to be the quotient of the plactic monoid by the relations a2  for every letter a. The plactic-like monoids considered are the plactic monoid itself, the Chinese monoid, and the sylvester monoid. In each case we describe: a set of normal forms, and the idempotents; and obtain formulae for their size

Involvement of Autophagic Pathway in the Progression of Retinal Degeneration in a Mouse Model of Diabetes

The notion that diabetic retinopathy (DR) is essentially a micro-vascular disease has been recently challenged by studies reporting that vascular changes are preceded by signs of damage and loss of retinal neurons. As to the mode by which neuronal death occurs, the evidence that apoptosis is the main cause of neuronal loss is far from compelling. The objective of this study was to investigate these controversies in a mouse model of streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetes. Starting from 8 weeks after diabetes induction there was loss of rod but not of cone photoreceptors, together with reduced thickness of the outer and inner synaptic layers. Correspondingly, rhodopsin expression was downregulated and the scotopic electroretinogram (ERG) is suppressed. In contrast, cone opsin expression and photopic ERG response were not affected. Suppression of the scotopic ERG preceded morphological changes as well as any detectable sign of vascular alteration. Only sparse apoptotic figures were detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay and glia was not activated. The physiological autophagy flow was altered instead, as seen by increased LC3 immunostaining at the level of outer plexiform layer (OPL) and upregulation of the autophagic proteins Beclin-1 and Atg5. Collectively, our results show that the streptozotocin induced DR in mouse initiates with a functional loss of the rod visual pathway. The pathogenic pathways leading to cell death develop with the initial dysregulation of autophagy well before the appearance of signs of vascular damage and without strong involvement of apoptosis

Morphological and histological characterization of sexual segment of the kidney in Notomabuya frenata (Cope, 1862) and Aspronema dorsivittatum (Cope, 1862) (Squamata, Mabuyidae)

The kidneys in two viviparous species of Neotropical lizards, Notomabuya frenata and Aspronema dorsivittatum (Mabuyidae), were investigated by light and scanning electron microscopy in order to determine the presence of the sexual segment of the kidney (SSK) and to study its morphology. The individuals used in this study belong to the Herpetological Collection of the Herpetology Laboratory - Reptiles of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (CHUFJF-Reptiles) and they were collected between the years 2008 and 2012 from the Cerrado region in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The SSK was present only in sexually mature males (with sperm in the testes / epididymis), whereas it was absent in sexually immature males. The nephron in both species consists of renal corpuscle, proximal convoluted tubule, distal convoluted tubule, collecting duct and sexual segment of the kidney. The SSK of the analyzed species were coated with a simple columnar epithelium, with high cells, basal nucleus and in the apical portion innumerable secretory granules. This study adds to the knowledge on reproductive biology and structures related to reproductive strategies of both lizard species and viviparous Neotropical lizards.