Brazilian teachers' beliefs about technologies in a training program in Portugal

Teachers’ beliefs regarding technologies are configured as a decisive component within the school context, since they interfere directly in the adoption of rejection of devices. This way, the objective was to identify the main beliefs held by Chemistry teachers who take part in continuous training in an international cooperation between Brazil and Portugal regarding the insertion of technologies in the school daily routine. The aim was the Teacher Professional Development Program that took place at Portugal. The individuals are Chemistry teachers (n=25) from all Brazilian macroregions, including immersion follow-up at the schools (n=5). The methodological procedures employed for data gathering were questionnaires, interviews and observations in both training in Portugal and in Brazilian schools. Data analysis was carried out through the use of content analysis assisted by the Nvivo software. The results point towards Chemistry teacher beliefs regarding the benefits and inconveniences from the use of technologies within their daily schooling contexts. The Chemistry teachers point out the benefits from the use of technologies in the classroom, but the inconveniences appear as decisive hurdles for them not to be used. Thus, the understanding of teacher's beliefs regarding government actions is essential for the application or financial resources and the didactic-pedagogical advancements in the use of technologies

Revision of the genus Megalastrum (Dryopteridaceae) for Argentina

So far the information about the genus Megalastrum (Dryopteridaceae) for Argentina is fragmented and incomplete. A revision of Megalastrum in Argentina is here presented; it is represented by six species: M. adenopteris, M. ciliatum, M. connexum, M. crenulans, M. fugaceum, and M. spectabile. A key to the species is provided, plus descriptions, notes on distribution and habitat, as well as illustrations of diagnostic characters for each taxon. Megalastrum crenulans and M. spectabile are lectotypified. The species occur primarily in the Argentinean forests, with a disjunct distribution, three species grow in the north-western Yungas, two species grow in the Parana forest, and one species grows in the Valdivian temperate rain forest. Megalastrum pulverulentum and M. subincisum are excluded from the Argentinean flora.La información referente al género Megalastrum (Dryopteridaceae) para la Argentina es hasta ahora fragmentaria e incompleta. Se presenta aquí una revisión de Megalastrum en Argentina, el cual está representado por seis especies: M. adenopteris, M. ciliatum, M. connexum, M. crenulans, M. fugaceum y M. spectabile. Se provee una clave para las especies, junto con descripciones, notas sobre la distribución y el hábitat, y se incluyen ilustraciones de los caracteres diagnósticos para cada taxón. Se lectotipifican Megalastrum crenulans y M. spectabile. Las especies habitan primariamente en las selvas de Argentina, con una distribución disyunta, tres especies crecen en las Yungas del noroeste, dos especies crecen en la selva Paranaense y una especie crece en la selva Valdiviana templada. Megalastrum pulverulentum y M. subincisum son excluidas de la flora Argentina.Fil: Arana, Marcelo Daniel. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicoquímicas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Prado, Jefferson. Jardim Botânico de São Paulo. Instituto de Botânica; BrasilFil: Ponce, Marta Monica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion; Argentin

UCEMEPA: Ubiquitous Computing Environment for Monitoring and Evaluating Physical Activity

The physical inactivity has been indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the main risk factors for the incidence of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (CNCDs). To change this scenario WHO has stimulated regular practice of physical activities because they play an important role in preventing CNCDs. In Brazil, these activities are performed by health units which generate a large amount of data that need treatment. To deal with this problem we developed UCEMEPA, an environment that employs Ubiquitous Computing technologies and wireless communication networks, in order to monitor remotely and evaluate in real-time participants of physical activity groups. This environment automatically collects physiologic data, and provides indicators which will support and direct public policies for promoting physical activity. In this sense the UCEMEPA will contribute for the promotion of health and quality of life, and for the conduction of longitudinal studies aiming to establish correlations between the practice of physical activity and CNCDs prevention

Prediction of Neurological Enzyme Targets for Known and New Compounds with a Model using Galvez's Topological Indices

The 18th International Electronic Conference on Synthetic Organic Chemistry session Computational ChemistryAlzheimer's Disease (AD), Parkinson, and other neurodegenerative diseases are a major health problem nowadays. In this sense, the discovery of new drugs for neurodiseases treatment is a goal of the major importance. Public databases, like ChEMBL, contain a large amount of data about multiplexing assays of inhibitors of a group of enzymes with special relevance in central nervous system. Mono Amino Oxidases (MAOs), Acetyl Cholinesterase (AChE), Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 (GSK-3), AChE (AChE), and 5α-reductases (5αRs). This data conform an important information source for the application of multi-target computational models. However, almost all the computational models known focus in only one target. In this work, we developed mt-QSAR for inhibitors of 8 different enzymes promising in the treatment of different neurodiseases. In so doing, we combined by the first time the software DRAGON with Moving Average parameters with this objective. The best DRAGON model found predict with very high accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity >90% a very large data set >10000 cases in training and validation series. We also report experimental results about the assay of several 7

Desenvolvimento de algoritmos de analise optica do olho humano em uma plataforma livre

Orientador: Dr. Emerson Cristiano BarbanoCoorientador: Dr. André Orlandi de OliveiraMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Exatas, Curso de Graduação em FísicaInclui referênciasResumo: A visão permite a obtenção de informações a respeito do universo, trazidas aos olhos pela luz. Há muitos séculos, estudiosos elaboram hipóteses sobre o funcionamento desse sentido e os fenômenos luminosos. Desde então, o entendimento da luz evoluiu substancialmente graças a teorias físicas e de engenhosos experimentos com espelhos, lentes, interferômetros e a interação com a matéria. Apesar de ser percebida como um fenômeno emergente de uma partícula quântica, a sua interpretação como uma onda guiada por raios ainda é extremamente útil. Por outro lado, muitos detalhes do funcionamento do olho humano permaneceram ocultos até recentemente, com a sofisticação de equipamentos de medição e o processamento de dados em computadores. Diversos trabalhos buscaram modelar matematicamente o olho utilizando medições reais, mas ainda não há um consenso sobre a melhor forma de representar os elementos ópticos do olho, em particular o cristalino. Esses modelos são de vital importância para os avanços no entendimento da visão e de grande interesse da medicina, como no ramo de cirurgias refrativas. Neste trabalho foi desenvolvida uma simulação do olho humano no GeoGebra, uma plataforma aberta que possibilita a edição e disponibilização das construções feitas nela para o público. Para isso, foram desenvolvidos algoritmos de análise óptica restrita ao um plano que contém o eixo óptico, em que as superfícies são definidas por funções ou conjuntos de pontos, para meios homogêneos e com gradiente de índice de refração (GRIN), de forma que possam ser adaptados para qualquer plataforma com as ferramentas matemáticas necessárias para processá-los. Os algoritmos foram implementados em simulações isoladas, entre as quais está um modelo da estrutura GRIN do cristalino, que reproduz os valores de poder refrativo encontrados na literatura, e uma proposta de tratamento de dados obtidos em medições de superfícies sem interpolação através de equações lineares, cujos resultados convergem para o caso suave quando o número de pontos é da ordem de centenas. As escolhas feitas durante a integração dos algoritmos priorizaram o desempenho computacional do software, de forma que é possível utilizá-lo mesmo em navegadores de internet. Os usuários podem comparar a qualidade óptica do olho humano para diversos parâmetros e atestar o aumento do poder refrativo graças à estrutura GRIN do cristalinoAbstract: Vision makes it possible to obtain information about the universe, brought to the eyes by light. For several centuries, scholars have developed hypotheses about the workings of this sense and the optical phenomena. The understanding of light has evolved substantially since then, thanks to physical theories and ingenious experiments with mirrors, emergent phenomenon of a quantum particle, its interpretation as a wave guided by rays is still extremely useful. On the other hand, many details of the functioning of the human eye remained hidden until recently, with the sophistication of measuring equipment and data processing in computers. Several works have sought to mathematically model the eye using real measurements, but there is still no consensus on the best way to represent the optical elements of the eye, particularly the crystalline lens. These models are of vital importance for advances in the understanding of vision and of great interest in medicine, such as in the field of refractive surgery. In this work, a simulation of the human eye was developed in GeoGebra, an open platform that allows editing and publishing of constructions made in it. For this, optical analysis algorithms restricted to a plane that contains the optical axis were developed, in which the surfaces are defined by functions or sets of points, for homogeneous and gradient refractive index (GRIN) media, so that they can be adapted to any platform with the mathematical tools needed to compute them. The algorithms were implemented in isolated simulations, among which is a model of the GRIN structure of the lens, which reproduces the values of refractive power found in the literature, and a proposal for the treatment of real surface data without interpolation through linear equations, whose results converge to the smooth case when the number of points is on the order of hundreds. The choices made during the integration of the algorithms prioritized the computational performance of the software, so that it is possible to use it even in internet browsers. Users can compare the optical quality of the human eye for various parameters and attest to the increase in refractive power thanks to the GRIN structure of the len