Heart Rate Response to Sound and Light

Heart rate response to varying sound and light intensitie

Light-inducible transcriptomic and epigenomic changes underlying brain plasticity in honeybees

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada à Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra.Pretendemos, com esta dissertação, fundamentar a categorização como ritual laico da Arte como Veículo, propósito da última fase do trabalho de Jerzy Grotowski, discutindo os modos particulares dessa categorização. No primeiro capítulo expomos, resumidamente, o percurso artístico de Grotowski e as principais influências que marcaram o seu pensamento. Explicamos os conceitos fundamentais que estruturam a sua prática artística e ensaiamos uma definição para a Arte como Veículo. Finalizamos o capítulo com uma discussão sobre a categorização como ritual das criações performativas produzidas segundo este modelo. No segundo capítulo abordamos o ritual como performance e discutimos a origem ritual dos géneros estéticos performativos. Apresentamos definições operativas de ritual e performance e abordamos os principais aspectos do ritual enquanto performance, recorrendo sobretudo à Antropologia da Performance de Victor Turner. No final do capítulo exploramos a categorização da Arte como Veiculo como ritual, à luz da Antropologia da Performance. No terceiro capítulo fazemos um estudo sumário de um ritual tradicional, o culto dos Theyyams do Norte Malabar, na Índia. Contextualizamos e descrevemos o ritual e algumas das suas particularidades. Relatamos as impressões recolhidas durante um estudo de campo na região, à luz da experiência da Arte como Veículo e dos aspectos realçados pela Antropologia da Performance. Concluímos com a enumeração de resultados obtidos e a confrontação entre o que se apurou na investigação sobre a Arte como Veículo e as impressões recolhidas no estudo do Theyyam, apontando-se desenvolvimentos que possam futuramente confirmar ou reforçar os resultados agora apresentados.With this dissertation I intend to justify the categorization as a secular ritual of the Art as Vehicle, the last phase of Jerzy Grotowski's work, discussing the particular ways of this categorization. In the first chapter I briefly expose the artistic course of Grotowski and the main influences that marked his thought. I explain the fundamental concepts that structure his artistic practice and I essay a definition for Art as Vehicle. I end the chapter with a discussion of the categorization as a ritual of performing works created according to this model. In the second chapter I address the ritual as performance and briefly discuss the ritual origin of performative aesthetic genres. I propose operative definitions for ritual and performance and I enumerate the main aspects of ritual as performance, calling upon, mostly, the Anthropology of Performance from Victor Turner. At the end of the chapter I explore the categorization as ritual of Art as Vehicle at the light of the Anthropology of Performance. In the third chapter I make a summary study of a traditional ritual, the worship of Theyyams in the North Malabar, India. I contextualize and describe the ritual and some of its special features. I report the impressions gathered during a field study in the region, at the light of the experience of Art as Vehicle and of the aspects highlighted by the Anthropology of Performance. I conclude with an enumeration of results and the confrontation between what was found in the research on Art as Vehicle and the impressions gathered in the study of Theyyam, pointing out future developments that may confirm or strengthen the results now presented

The cash crop revolution, colonialism and economic reorganization in Africa

In the 19th and 20th centuries, African economies experienced a significant structural transformation from the slave trades to commercial agriculture. We analyze the long-run impact of this economic transition focusing on the dynamic effects of: shifting geographic fundamentals to favor agroclimatic suitability for cash crops; infrastructural investments to reduce trade costs; and external forward production linkages. Using agro-climatic suitability scores and historical data on the source location of more than 95 percent of all exports across 38 African states, we assess the consequences of these changes on economic reorganization across the continent. We find that colonial cash crop production had positive long-run effects on urbanization, road infrastructure, nighttime luminosity, and household wealth. These effects rival or surpass other geographic and historical forces. Exploring causal mechanisms, we show that path dependence due to colonial infrastructure investments is the more important channel than continued advantages in agricultural productivity. However, these agglomerating effects were highly localized; we find limited evidence that commercial agriculture spurred broader regional growth, in contrast to other cash crop regions around the world. If anything, we observe in Africa the economic gains accruing to cash crop zones came at the expense of nearby areas, which are worse off today than expected based on underlying characteristics. Overall, our analysis has important implications for the debate on the long-run effects of colonialism on development in the region. Rather than offsetting negative institutional effects, subnational extractive processes may have reinforced them by sowing economic and social inequalities

BOC is a modifier gene in holoprosencephaly

Holoprosencephaly (HPE), a common developmental defect of the forebrain and midface, has a complex etiology. Heterozygous, loss‐of‐function mutations in the sonic hedgehog (SHH) pathway are associated with HPE. However, mutation carriers display highly variable clinical presentation, leading to an “autosomal dominant with modifier” model, in which the penetrance and expressivity of a predisposing mutation is graded by genetic or environmental modifiers. Such modifiers have not been identified. Boc encodes a SHH coreceptor and is a silent HPE modifier gene in mice. Here, we report the identification of missense BOC variants in HPE patients. Consistent with these alleles functioning as HPE modifiers, individual variant BOC proteins had either loss‐ or gain‐of‐function properties in cell‐based SHH signaling assays. Therefore, in addition to heterozygous loss‐of‐function mutations in specific SHH pathway genes and an ill‐defined environmental component, our findings identify a third variable in HPE: low‐frequency modifier genes, BOC being the first identified.Holoprosencephaly (HPE), the most developmental common defect of the forebrain, is best explained by a “mutation with modifier” model. However, HPE modifier genes have not been identified. Here, we report HPE‐associated missense variants within the Hedgehog coreceptor BOC (arrows). Functional analyses of these variants, along with previous work in mouse models, are consistent with the conclusion that these variants act as phenotypic modifiers of a driver mutation or environmental insult.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138902/1/humu23286-sup-0001-text.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138902/2/humu23286_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138902/3/humu23286.pd

Acoustic transfer of protein crystals from agarose pedestals to micromeshes for high-throughput screening

An acoustic high-throughput screening method is described for harvesting protein crystals and combining the protein crystals with chemicals such as a fragment library

Hitting the target: fragment screening with acoustic in situ co-crystallization of proteins plus fragment libraries on pin-mounted data-collection micromeshes

A method is presented for screening fragment libraries using acoustic droplet ejection to co-crystallize proteins and chemicals directly on micromeshes with as little as 2.5 nl of each component. This method was used to identify previously unreported fragments that bind to lysozyme, thermolysin, and trypsin

Immunoblot analysis of the seroreactivity to recombinant Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato antigens, including VlsE, in the long-term course of treated patients with Erythema migrans

Objective: We evaluated whether immunoblotting is capable of substantiating the posttreatment clinical assessment of patients with erythema migrans ( EM), the hallmark of early Lyme borreliosis. Methods: In 50 patients, seroreactivity to different antigens of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato was analyzed by a recombinant immunoblot test (IB) in consecutive serum samples from a minimum follow-up period of 1 year. Antigens in the IgG test were decorin- binding protein A, internal fragment of p41 (p41i), outer surface protein C (OspC), p39, variable major protein-like sequence expressed (VlsE), p58 and p100; those in the IgM test were p41i, OspC and p39. Immune responses were correlated with clinical and treatment-related parameters. Results: Positive IB results were found in 50% before, in 57% directly after therapy and in 44% by the end of the follow-up for the IgG class, and in 36, 43 and 12% for the IgM class. In acute and convalescence phase sera, VlsE was most immunogenic on IgG testing 60 and 70%), and p41i (46 and 57%) and OspC (40 and 57%) for the IgM class. By the end of the follow-up, only the anti-p41i lgM response was significantly decreased to 24%. Conclusions: No correlation was found between IB results and treatment-related parameters. Thus, immunoblotting does not add to the clinical assessment of EM patients after treatment. Copyright (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

Early Intubation in Endovascular Therapy for Basilar Artery Occlusion:A Post Hoc Analysis of the BASICS Trial

BACKGROUND: The optimal anesthetic management for endovascular therapy (EVT) in patients with posterior circulation stroke remains unclear. Our objective was to investigate the impact of early intubation in patients enrolled in the BASICS trial (Basilar Artery International Cooperation Study). METHODS: BASICS was a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial that compared the efficacy of EVT compared with the best medical care alone in patients with basilar artery occlusion. In this post hoc analysis, early intubation within the first 24 hours of the estimated time of basilar artery occlusion was examined as an additional covariate using regression modeling. We estimated the adjusted relative risks (RRs) for favorable outcomes, defined as modified Rankin Scale scores of 0 to 3 at 90 days. An adjusted common odds ratio was estimated for a shift in the distribution of modified Rankin Scale scores at 90 days. RESULTS: Of 300 patients in BASICS, 289 patients were eligible for analysis (151 in the EVT group and 138 in the best medical care group). compared with medical care alone, EVT was related to a higher risk of early intubation (RR, 1.29 [95% CI, 1.09–1.53]; P&lt;0.01), and early intubation was negatively associated with favorable outcome (RR, 0.61 [95% CI, 0.45–0.84]; P=0.002). Whereas there was no overall treatment effect of EVT on favorable outcome (RR, 1.22 [95% CI, 0.95–1.55]; P=0.121), EVT was associated with favorable outcome (RR, 1.34 [95% CI, 1.05–1.71]; P=0.018) and a shift toward lower modified Rankin Scale scores (adjusted common odds ratio, 1.63 [95% CI, 1.04–2.57]; P=0.033) if adjusted for early intubation. CONCLUSIONS: In this post hoc analysis of the neutral BASICS trial, early intubation was linked to unfavorable outcomes, which might mitigate a potential benefit from EVT by indirect effects due to an increased risk of early intubation. This relationship may be considered when assessing the efficacy of EVT in patients with basilar artery occlusion in future trials.</p