A relação entre percepção de valor e retenção: uma análise comparativa entre faculdades e universidades particulares

ABSTRACTThe relationship between perceived value and retention of students has been widely studied in national and international literature. One of the ways to analyze student’s relationship with their institutions is through understanding their perception of value of the institution. Based on this analysis, this paper proposes an alternative study of this relationship by comparing samples collected at private colleges and universities through the second-order factor models. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of perceived value in retention of students in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). Furthermore, we intended to examine the possible moderating influence of HEI’s scope (either college or university) in the relationship between perceived value and retention. To this purpose, we applied five hundred and sixteen questionnaires to undergraduate students of four HEI (two colleges and two universities) located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Findings led to propose the second-order factor models as an alternative paradigm to traditional models of SEM, generating more robust and reliable functional relationships. In addition, we accepted the hypothesis of moderation

Determinantes da Relação Confiança e Lealdade no Setor Hoteleiro: Uma Análise das Dimensões Atendimento e Valor Percebido

O presente artigo teve como objetivo analisar os antecedentes que influenciam na relação confiança e lealdade dos hóspedes no setor hoteleiro. Para isto, foi construído um modelo teórico que sustenta nove hipóteses. Logo após, desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa de campo com características descritivas e de natureza quantitativa, com a aplicação de trezentos e setenta e dois questionários. Após a coleta dos dados, os mesmos foram processados por meio da técnica de modelagem de equações estruturais que permitiu testar as proposições. Os resultados demonstraram que o comprometimento tem um papel fundamental na relação confiança e lealdade, principalmente quando são incorporados os antecedentes, valor percebido e confiança no atendimento. Além disso, o modelo final adicionou seis novas correlações que devem ser respeitadas ao desenvolver estratégias, visando a uma maior confiança e lealdade dos hóspedes: característica com atendimento e satisfação com atendimento; experiências anteriores e qualidade percebida; características com atendimento e experiências anteriores; satisfação com atendimento e experiências anteriores; qualidade percebida e características com atendimento; qualidade percebida e satisfação com atendimento; qualidade percebida e confiança no hotel; característica no atendimento e confiança no hotel. Palavras-chave: Confiança. Lealdade. Confiança no Atendimento. Valor percebido

AVALIAÇÃO TOXICOLÓGICA DOS EFEITOS DO COBRE NA ESPÉCIE Carassius auratus

Com o crescimento industrial, a deposição de xenobióticos no ambiente teve um aumento significativo, causando degradação dos ecossistemas. Tendo em vista estes problemas, é imprescindível a análise da toxicidade destes compostos. Sabendo-se que o cobre é um dos muitos xenobióticos depositado no ambiente natural, este trabalho teve o objetivo de realizar um teste toxicológico agudo dos efeitos do sulfato de cobre no peixe dourado (Carassius auratus) bem como relacionar seus efeitos a uma área de provável contaminação ambiental por cobre. Para isso, realizaram-se testes comportamentais, determinação de dose letal 50 (DL50), e no-observed-effect-level (NOEL), além de avaliar parâmetro de toxicidade em peixes expostos ao sulfato de cobre e a águas coletadas em área onde ocorreu extração de cobre, os experimentos foram realizados em triplicata. Como resultado, observou-se que os animais expostos apresentaram alterações comportamentais, perda de peso quando comparados ao grupo controle, além de a concentração letal capaz de matar 50% dos indivíduos em 24 horas foi de 2 mg/L, em 72 horas  foi 1 mg/L e em 96 h foi de 0,5 mg/L. O NOEL é menor que 0,5 mg/L e o LOEC é igual a 0,5 mg/L. Desta forma pode-se concluir que o sulfato de cobre, bem como as amostras coletadas em área de mineração de cobre foram capazes de causar toxicidade em Carassius aurautus e estudos detalhados de mecanismo de ação são necessários para melhor compreensão da toxicidade das áreas contaminadas por cobre utilizadas neste trabalho

The Critically Endangered Pampa Cat (<em>Leopardus munoai</em>) on the Brink of Extinction in Brazil: The Little We Know and an Action Plan to Try to Save it

Leopardus munoai, the Pampa cat, is a small felid (ca. 3–4 kg) recently separated from the Leopardus colocola complex. This Pampa cat is endemic to the Pampas grasslands of Uruguay, western Argentina and southernmost Brazil. Originally, the Pampas had a long history of extensive cattle ranching; however, its fields have been exponentially converted mostly to soy fields in the last five decades. Species distribution models have shown a reduction in their area (1997–2022) of 42%, with only 31,808 km2 of suitable habitat remaining. Despite the Brazilian Pampas being surveyed in their entirety, no records of this felid have ever been repeated at the same site in different years since 1997 (50,000 trap-nights; >400,000 km of highway day/night crossing). This effort generated only 32 records (17 road-kills). Despite the huge detection efforts, there has never been a confirmed resident population detected anywhere. The scenario that unfolds is of an extremely rare felid that seems to use the vanishing native herbaceous fields, which are dependent upon cattle grazing, in replacement of the original (now extinct) grazing megafauna. With an expected population of 45–50 individuals, which has become virtually extinct in its original eastern portion, all signs point towards imminent extinction

EVALUATION OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN C/T-13910 POLYMORPHISM GENOTYPING RESULTS AND LACTOSE TOLERANCE TEST RESULTS: A RETROSPECTIVE POPULATION-BASED STUDY IN BRAZIL

ABSTRACT Background: Lactose tolerant test (LTT) is the most broadly used diagnostic test for lactose intolerance in Brazil, is an indirect, minimally invasive and a low-cost test that is widely available in primary care and useful in clinical practice. The C/T-13910 polymorphism in lactase persistence has been well characterized in Caucasian populations, but there are no studies evaluating the concordance between C/T-13910 polymorphism genotyping results and LTT results in Brazil, where the population is highly mixed. Objective: We aimed to evaluate agreement between presence of C/T-13910 polymorphism genotyping and malabsorption in LTT results. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of a Brazilian population whose data were collected from a single laboratory database present in several Brazilian states. Results of individuals who underwent both genetic testing for lactose intolerance (C/T-13910 polymorphism genotyping) and an LTT from April 2016 until February 2019 were analysed to evaluate agreement between tests. Groups were classified according to age (<10-year-old (yo), 10-17 yo, ≥18 yo groups) and state of residence (São Paulo or Rio Grande do Sul). Results: Among the 404 patients evaluated, there was agreement between the genotyping and LTT results in 325 (80.4%) patients and discordance in 79 (19.6%) patients (k=0.42 -moderate agreement). Regarding the genotype, 47 patients with genotype C/C (lactase nonpersistence) had normal LTT results, and 32 with genotype C/T or T/T (indicating lactase persistence) had abnormal LTT results. Neither age nor state of residence (Rio Grande do Sul or São Paulo) affected the agreement between test results. Conclusion: Considering the moderate agreement between C/T-13910 polymorphism genotyping and LTT results (κ=0.42) in the Brazilian population, we hypothesize that an analysis of other polymorphisms could be a strategy to improve the agreement between genotyping and established tests and suggest that additional studies should focus on exploring this approach

Trans-sialidase from Trypanosoma cruzi enhances the adhesion properties and fibronectin-driven migration of thymocytes

In experimental Trypanosoma cruzi infections, severe thymic atrophy leads to release of activated CD4+CD8+ double-positive (DP) T cells to the periphery. In humans, activated DP T cells are found in the blood in association with severe cardiac forms of human chronic Chagas disease. The mechanisms underlying the premature thymocyte release during the chagasic thymic atrophy remain elusive. We tested whether the migratory properties of intrathymic thymocytes are modulated by the parasite trans-sialidase (TS). We found that TS affected the dynamics of thymocytes undergoing intrathymic maturation, and these changes were accompanied by an increase in the number of recent DP thymic emigrants in the peripheral lymphoid organs. We demonstrated that increased percentages of blood DP T cell subsets were associated with augmented antibody titers against TS in chagasic patients with chronic cardiomyopathy. In vitro studies showed that TS was able to activate the MAPK pathway and actin filament mobilization in thymocytes. These effects were correlated with its ability to modulate the adhesion of thymocytes to thymic epithelial cells and their migration toward extracellular matrix. These findings point to effects of TS that could influence the escape of immature thymocytes in Chagas disease.Fil: Nardy, Ana Flávia F.R.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Silva Filho, Joao Luiz da. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Perez, Ana Rosa. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Inmunología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Meis, Juliana de. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; BrasilFil: Farias de Oliveira, Désio Aurélio. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; BrasilFil: Penha, Luciana. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Oliveira, Isadora de Araújo. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Dias, Wagner B.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Todeschini, Adriane. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Freire de Lima, Célio Geraldo. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Bellio, Maria. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Caruso Neves, Celso. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Pinheiro, Ana Acácia. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Takiya, Christina Maeda. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Bottasso, Oscar Adelmo. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Inmunología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Savino, Wilson. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; BrasilFil: Morrot, Alexandre. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasi

Tailoring of magnetocaloric effect in Ni45.5Mn43.0In11.5 metamagnetic shape memory alloy

We investigate the direct and inverse magnetocaloric effect in Ni45.5Mn43.0In11.5 Heusler alloy ribbons comparing the results obtained for the as-quenched sample with the ones after different annealing procedures. An enhancement and shift of the entropy maximum to near room temperature is observed in all annealed samples. A remarkable magnetocaloric effect is observed in samples with short-time treatment (10 minutes) and at the lowest annealing temperature. We show that the suppressing of uncompensated martensitic transition and thermal hysteresis are both influenced by the heat treatment. Also, an improvement on Curie’s temperature is observed and, at low magnetic field, it has been risen up to 310 K. Our results demonstrate that the martensitic transformation is highly sensitive to the applied magnetic field and also to the annealing treatment, which means that the magnetocaloric effect can be tuned showing different behaviors for each sample.Authors are thankful to Spanish MICINN for financial support: MAT2009-13108-C02-01-02 and MAT2010-20798-C05-04. L. Gonzalez also thanks MICINN for a FPI Grant and J. García FICYT for a “Severo Ochoa” Grant

Fungal and fungal-like diversity in marine sediments from the maritime Antarctic assessed using DNA metabarcoding

We assessed the fungal and fungal-like sequence diversity present in marine sediments obtained in the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands (Southern Ocean) using DNA metabarcoding through high-throughput sequencing (HTS). A total of 193,436 DNA reads were detected in sediment obtained from three locations: Walker Bay (Livingston Island) at 52 m depth (48,112 reads), Whalers Bay (Deception Island) at 151 m (104,704) and English Strait at 404 m (40,620). The DNA sequence reads were assigned to 133 distinct fungal amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) representing the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mortierellomycota, Chytridiomycota, Glomeromycota, Monoblepharomycota, Mucoromycota and Rozellomycota and the fungal-like Straminopila. Thelebolus balaustiformis, Pseudogymnoascus sp., Fungi sp. 1, Ciliophora sp., Agaricomycetes sp. and Chaetoceros sp. were the dominant assigned taxa. Thirty-eight fungal ASVs could only be assigned to higher taxonomic levels, and may represent taxa not currently included in the available databases or represent new taxa and/or new records for Antarctica. The total fungal community displayed high indices of diversity, richness and moderate to low dominance. However, diversity and taxa distribution varied across the three sampling sites. In Walker Bay, unidentified fungi were dominant in the sequence assemblage. Whalers Bay sediment was dominated by Antarctic endemic and cold-adapted taxa. Sediment from English Strait was dominated by Ciliophora sp. and Chaetoceros sp. These fungal assemblages were dominated by saprotrophic, plant and animal pathogenic and symbiotic taxa. The detection of an apparently rich and diverse fungal community in these marine sediments reinforces the need for further studies to characterize their richness, functional ecology and potential biotechnological applications