Reflexões sobre o projeto de extensão Ciência na Fronteira: expandindo os limites do conhecimento

“Science in the Frontier: Expanding the Limits of Knowledge” is a project that aims to promote in young people interest in Natural Science by means of experimental activities involving advanced topics, such as Black Holes and Relativity, in accessible language for the students of the Basic Education. It was fostered by the Instituto Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Campus Corumbá (IFMS-CB), and its target audience were the students of Basic Education in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. Students from the eighth year of elementary school up to the second year of high school enrolled in this project. All activities were mediated by scholarship monitors from the integrated technical high school courses of the IFMS-CB. Initially conceived as a face-to-face project, the great challenge was the transposition of its interactive and collaborative approach to the virtual environment. That was achieved by using various digital resources which allowed the manipulation of media and collaborative creations. The success of that adaptation was verified by means of the evaluation of the participants, who indicated interactivity as the main positive point of the project. Another lesson learned was the use of Instagram to publish the project enrollments. The initial model used was the conventional IFMS-CB media and had little result. The project showed that it is possible not only to teach science through advanced topics but also to promote efficient interactive virtual learning environment.O projeto “Ciência na Fronteira: Expandindo os Limites do Conhecimento” tinha como objetivo instigar nos jovens o interesse pelas Ciências da Natureza por meio de atividades experimentais envolvendo tópicos avançados como Buracos Negros e Relatividade, apresentados em linguagem acessível a estudantes da Educação Básica. Fomentado por edital do Instituto Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Campus Corumbá (IFMS-CB, 2020), seu público-alvo eram estudantes da Educação Básica do Estado, matriculados entre o oitavo ano do Ensino Fundamental e a segunda série do Ensino Médio. Todas as atividades foram mediadas por monitoras bolsistas do Ensino Médio Técnico Integrado do IFMS-CB. Concebido inicialmente como presencial, o grande desafio encontrado foi a transposição de sua proposta de abordagem interativa e colaborativa para o ambiente virtual. Isso foi conseguido com o uso de recursos digitais variados que permitiam a manipulação de mídias e criações colaborativas, e o sucesso desta adaptação foi verificado por meio da avaliação dos participantes, que apontaram a interatividade como o principal ponto positivo de todo o projeto. Outro aprendizado foi o uso da rede social Instagram para divulgação das inscrições. O modelo inicial usava as mídias institucionais do IFMS-CB e teve pouco resultado. O projeto mostrou que é possível tanto ensinar Ciências através de tópicos avançados quanto promover um ambiente virtual de aprendizado interativo eficiente

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field