Lattice-Based proof of a shuffle

In this paper we present the first fully post-quantum proof of a shuffle for RLWE encryption schemes. Shuffles are commonly used to construct mixing networks (mix-nets), a key element to ensure anonymity in many applications such as electronic voting systems. They should preserve anonymity even against an attack using quantum computers in order to guarantee long-term privacy. The proof presented in this paper is built over RLWE commitments which are perfectly binding and computationally hiding under the RLWE assumption, thus achieving security in a post-quantum scenario. Furthermore we provide a new definition for a secure mixing node (mix-node) and prove that our construction satisfies this definition.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Macrophage adaptation leads to parallel evolution of genetically diverseEscherichia colismall-colony variants with increased fitness in vivo and antibiotic collateral sensitivity

Small-colony variants (SCVs) are commonly observed in evolution experiments and clinical isolates, being associated with antibiotic resistance and persistent infections. We recently observed the repeated emergence of Escherichia coli SCVs during adaptation to the interaction with macrophages. To identify the genetic targets underlying the emergence of this clinically relevant morphotype, we performed whole-genome sequencing of independently evolved SCV clones. We uncovered novel mutational targets, not previously associated with SCVs (e.g. cydA, pepP) and observed widespread functional parallelism. All SCV clones had mutations in genes related to the electron-transport chain. As SCVs emerged during adaptation to macrophages, and often show increased antibiotic resistance, we measured SCV fitness inside macrophages and measured their antibiotic resistance profiles. SCVs had a fitness advantage inside macrophages and showed increased aminoglycoside resistance in vitro, but had collateral sensitivity to other antibiotics (e.g. tetracycline). Importantly, we observed similar results in vivo. SCVs had a fitness advantage upon colonization of the mouse gut, which could be tuned by antibiotic treatment: kanamycin (aminoglycoside) increased SCV fitness, but tetracycline strongly reduced it. Our results highlight the power of using experimental evolution as the basis for identifying the causes and consequences of adaptation during host-microbe interactions.European Research Council under the European Community’ Seventh Framework Programme grant:(FP7/2007-2013); German Science Foundation grants: (G-410861, SFB-680); EMMA; InfrafrontierI3

Macrophage adaptation leads to parallel evolution of genetically diverseEscherichia colismall-colony variants with increased fitness in vivo and antibiotic collateral sensitivity

Small-colony variants (SCVs) are commonly observed in evolution experiments and clinical isolates, being associated with antibiotic resistance and persistent infections. We recently observed the repeated emergence of Escherichia coli SCVs during adaptation to the interaction with macrophages. To identify the genetic targets underlying the emergence of this clinically relevant morphotype, we performed whole-genome sequencing of independently evolved SCV clones. We uncovered novel mutational targets, not previously associated with SCVs (e.g. cydA, pepP) and observed widespread functional parallelism. All SCV clones had mutations in genes related to the electron-transport chain. As SCVs emerged during adaptation to macrophages, and often show increased antibiotic resistance, we measured SCV fitness inside macrophages and measured their antibiotic resistance profiles. SCVs had a fitness advantage inside macrophages and showed increased aminoglycoside resistance in vitro, but had collateral sensitivity to other antibiotics (e.g. tetracycline). Importantly, we observed similar results in vivo. SCVs had a fitness advantage upon colonization of the mouse gut, which could be tuned by antibiotic treatment: kanamycin (aminoglycoside) increased SCV fitness, but tetracycline strongly reduced it. Our results highlight the power of using experimental evolution as the basis for identifying the causes and consequences of adaptation during host-microbe interactions.European Research Council under the European Community’ Seventh Framework Programme grant:(FP7/2007-2013); German Science Foundation grants: (G-410861, SFB-680); EMMA; InfrafrontierI3

Estudo preliminar de alterações anátomo-histológicas em caprinos intersexuais sem cornos da raça Serrana

Este estudo teve como principal objectivo identificar possíveis alterações anátomo-histológicas em caprinos Serranos, sem cornos e intersexuais, relativamente a caprinos da mesma raça, com cornos e sexualmente normais. Neste sentido, quatro caprinos da raça portuguesa Serrana, ecótipo transmontano, com aproximadamente um ano de idade, foram utilizados na realização deste ensaio. Dois deles tinham cornos e eram sexualmente normais (testemunhas), enquanto os outros dois eram sem cornos e apresentavam fenómenos de intersexualidade. Os dois caprinos intersexuais estudados apresentavam diferentes graus de masculinização do seu tracto genital e eram estéreis. Um deles revelou-se pseudomacho e o outro hermafrodita bilateral

Configurações da política de integração: educação profissional e básica na modalidade de educação de jovens e adultos nos institutos federais de educação em Santa Catarina

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Florianópolis, 2015.Este trabalho resulta da investigação sobre a política de integração da Educação Profissional à Educação Básica na modalidade da Educação de Jovens e Adultos apresentada pelo Governo Federal brasileiro com o horizonte de universalização da Educação Básica, aliada à formação para o mundo do trabalho, acolhendo o segmento populacional de jovens e adultos que possuem trajetórias escolares descontínuas. O objetivo da pesquisa foi de investigar como a implementação dessa política tem se configurado nos Institutos Federais de Educação em Santa Catarina. Analisa a integração da Educação Profissional à Educação Básica na modalidade da Educação de Jovens e Adultos, tendo em vista a verificação de sua compreensão no interior das unidades educacionais do Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina, Campus Florianópolis e Campus Florianópolis Continente, delimitados como unidades de análises desta pesquisa. A Educação de Jovens e Adultos, no âmbito do Ensino Médio, ainda é incipiente, discutir uma política de Educação Profissional integrada ao Ensino Médio na modalidade da Educação de Jovens e Adultos implica desenhar marcos de referencias sobre o que se entende por essa política educacional e em específico o PROEJA, assim como identificar as categorias que possibilitam e demarcam os referenciais teóricos desse objeto de análise. A presente pesquisa toma como referencial metodológico a ontologia crítica apresentada por György Lukács, com base nos fundamentos de Karl Marx, por considerarmos que é o método adequado aos nossos objetivos porque fornece as ferramentas necessárias e poderosas para o entendimento da origem, do desenvolvimento, das estruturas e do mecanismo de funcionamento da relação social dominada pelo capital. Com embasamento nessa perspectiva ontometodológica, buscamos compreender o PROEJA em sua complexa relação dos fenômenos sociais, no processo de apreensão das mediações do ser social, entre o fenômeno aparente e a apropriação de sua realidade existente e que permitem ampliar a compreensão do ser social como ser histórico e contraditório, possibilitando a captação mais apurada do complexo educacional e de sua articulação com a realidade. O estudo apresenta a partir da análise de fontes primárias e secundárias, alguns eixos temáticos/categorias que permitiram as análises: Recursos e fontes de financiamentos e financiamento de infraestrutura: obras e equipamentos; Formação inicial e continuada dos profissionais da educação; Integração educacional e trabalho como princípio educativo; Condições de trabalho dos profissionais da educação; Trajetória formativa dos estudantes, quepermitiram uma compreensão sobre como professores, estudantes, coordenadores pedagógicos e gestores dos cursos têm refletido em torno do mundo do trabalho e suas relações com o campo educacional, após a implementação do Programa Nacional de Integração da Educação Profissional com a Educação Básica na Modalidade de Educação de Jovens e Adultos no cotidiano dessas instituições educacionais. Procurando compreender os aspectos determinantes da configuração dos cursos de PROEJA analisados, os resultamos da pesquisa permitem considerar que a falta de formação inicial e continuada permanente, formação continuada realizada em condições precarizadas, a ausência de infraestrutura necessária para a realização dos trabalhos pedagógicos e a falta de política de permanência condizendo com as necessidades dos estudantes, repercutem no oferecimento de ensino de qualidade e na permanência dos estudantes nos cursos. Destacamos que a política de integração da Educação Profissional com a Educação Básica na modalidade da Educação de Jovens e Adultos, instituída pelo Governo Federal para a formação de jovens e adultos trabalhadores, mostra-se, em sua configuração, apenas como mais uma das políticas educacionais que possuem a função exclusiva de atender aos interesses do capital em tempo de reestruturação produtiva, no contexto de crise do capital e de reorganização do trabalho e das novas configurações de emprego e de desemprego. Finalmente destacamos que a pesquisa apresenta elementos conceituais para o processo de formação de educadores sobre a Educação Profissional e sua possibilidade de integração à Educação Básica na modalidade de Educação de Jovens e Adultos.Abstract : This work is the result of an investigation about the integration policy of professional education to basic education in the modality of youth and adults education presented by the Brazilian federal government having as its goals the universal system of basic education combined with training to the world of work, welcoming the young people and adults population segment who have discrete learning paths. The aim of the research was to investigate how the implementation of this policy has been configured in federal education in Santa Catarina. It analyzes the integration of professional education to basic education in the form of youth and adult education, in order to check the understanding of this policy in the educational units within the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis campus and Florianópolis campus continent, delimited as units of analysis of this research. The youth and adult education in high school, is still incipient. To discuss a professional education policy which is integrated to high school education in youth and adult modality implies to draw landmarks of references about what is meant by this educational policy and particularly the PROEJA, as well as to identify the categories that enable and mark out the theoretical frameworks of this object of analysis. The present research takes as the methodological framework the critical ontology presented by György Lukács, based on Karl Marx´s background, due to our beliefs that this is the appropriate method to our objectives because it provides the powerful and necessary tools for the understanding of the origin, development, structure and the operating mechanism of the social relationship dominated by capital. On the basis of ontological methodology perspective, we seek to understand PROEJA in its complex relationship of social phenomena, in the process of seizing the mediation of social being, between the apparent phenomenon and the ownership of their existing reality that allow to extend the understanding of the social being as a historical and contradictory being, making possible a more accurate catchment of the educational complex and its articulation with the reality .The research presents from the study of primary and secondary sources, some themes / categories which allowed the analysis: resources and sources of financing and infrastructure financing: buildings and equipment; pre-service and in-service teacher education and training, educational integration and work as an educational principle; working conditions for education professionals; formative path of students, which allowed an understanding of how teachers, students, coordinators and managers ofthe courses have reflected about the world of work and its relations with the educational field, after the implementation of the integration national programme of professional education with the basic education for youth and adult education mode in the daily life of these educational institutions. Trying to understand the determinant aspects and the PROEJA courses configuration which were analyzed, the research results allow to consider that the lack of initial, permanent formation and continued formation held in poor conditions, the lack of infrastructure to carry out pedagogical work and the lack of permanent policy suitable to the students needs, impact in providing quality education also affect the permanence of students in the courses. We highlight that the integration policy of the professional education with Basic Education in the form of Youth and Adult Education, established by the Federal Government for the training of young and adult workers, reveals in its configuration, as just one of the educational policies that have the exclusive function to meet the interests of capital in productive restructuring time, in the context of capital crisis and work reorganization and new configurations of employment and unemployment. Finally the study also presents conceptual elements for teacher training process on professional education and the possibility of integration of primary education in the form of youth and adult education

Cr(III) uptake by marine algal biomass: equilibrium and kinetics

In this work, biosorption of trivalent chromium by the marine brown algae Sargassum muticum was 37 studied in a batch system. The effect of the solution pH on Cr(III) uptake by Sargassum was 38 investigated. Kinetics and equilibrium experiments were conducted at different pH values (3.0, 4.0 and 39 5.0). Equilibrium data are well described by the Langmuir and Langmuir-Freundlich isotherms and 40 kinetics follows the pseudo-second-order model, at different pH values. The two mass transfer models 41 give comparable results, but they did not provide a perfect representation of the sorption data. The 42 homogeneous diffusivity, Dh, was found to be around 1.6´10-8 cm2 s-1 for 100 mg l-1 Cr(III) 43 concentration. 44 Sargassum muticum was compared with the brown algae Laminaria hyperborean and the red algae 45 Gelidium sesquipedale in terms of uptake capacity. The maximum uptake capacities for Sargassum, 46 Laminaria and Gelidium were, respectively, 56 ± 3, 70 ± 4 and 18 ± 1 mg Cr(III) g-1, at pH = 5

Anestesia volátil e monitorização anestésica.

Os autores apresentam um texto de apoio à disciplina de anestesiologia do curso de Medicina Veterinária .Neste texto são abordadas diversas temáticas da anestesia volátil tais como: equipamentos utilizados em anestesia volátil, farmacologia dos anestésicos voláteis. A monitorização dos pacientes é abordada na vertente mecânica ou intrumental e na componente básica

A Novel Analytical Framework for Dissecting the Genetic Architecture of Behavioral Symptoms in Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Background: For diagnosis of neuropsychiatric disorders, a categorical classification system is often utilized as a simple way for conceptualizing an often complex clinical picture. This approach provides an unsatisfactory model of mental illness, since in practice patients do not conform to these prototypical diagnostic categories. Family studies show notable familial co-aggregation between schizophrenia and bipolar illness and between schizoaffective disorders and both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, revealing that mental illness does not conform to such categorical models and is likely to follow a continuum encompassing a spectrum of behavioral symptoms. Results and Methodology: We introduce an analytic framework to dissect the phenotypic heterogeneity present in complex psychiatric disorders based on the conceptual paradigm of a continuum of psychosis. The approach identifies subgroups of behavioral symptoms that are likely to be phenotypically and genetically homogenous. We have evaluated this approach through analysis of simulated data with simulated behavioral traits and predisposing genetic factors. We also apply this approach to a psychiatric dataset of a genome scan for schizophrenia for which extensive behavioral information was collected for each individual patient and their families. With this approach, we identified significant evidence for linkage among depressed individuals with two distinct symptom profiles, that is individuals with sleep disturbance symptoms with linkage on chromosome 2q13 and also a mutually exclusive group of individuals with symptoms of concentration problems with linkage on chromosome 2q35. In addition we identified a subset of individuals with schizophrenia defined by language disturbances with linkage to chromosome 2p25.1 and a group of patients with a phenotype intermediate between those of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder with linkage to chromosome 2p21. Conclusions: The findings presented are novel and demonstrate the efficacy of this approach in detection of genes underlying such complex human disorders as schizophrenia and depression