from bioprocess development to final formulation

Viral products, including viral vaccines and viral vectors, are important tools for disease prevention and therapy. Viral vaccines, such as attenuated or inactivated rabies virus, influenza virus or hepatitis virus vaccines are powerful tools to limit the number of serious viral infections and pandemics. This type of biopharmaceuticals are used to improve human quality of life with vaccination being the most cost-effective method available for preventing economic losses and increasing the lifespan of both people and livestock. On the other hand, adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses and retroviruses are among the viral vectors currently being developed for delivering genetic material to the target cell in a growing number of gene therapy clinical applications(...

Bilinguismo e cognição numérica

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between bilingualism and numerical cognition, more specifically, the way English-Portuguese bilinguals solve simple mathematical problems when these are presented in different formats (digits, English, and Portuguese) and whether their language history background has any effect on such behavior. The main results suggest that bilinguals are faster and more accurate in solving mathematical problems presented in digit format and in solving those problems presented in the written format when the language of the stimuli was the one in which they learned basic arithmetic. Also, the participants’ language background experience did not have any significance in their task performance.O presente estudo visou investigar a relação entre bilinguismo e cognição numérica, mais especificamente, a maneira como pessoas bilíngues (português-inglês) resolvem problemas matemáticos simples quando eles são apresentados de diferentes maneiras (dígitos, inglês e português) e se o histórico de linguagem exerce algum efeito nesse comportamento. Os principais resultados deste estudo sugerem que os bilíngues são mais rápidos na resolução de problemas matemáticos apresentados em dígito, e mais precisos ao resolver problemas apresentados em forma escrita na língua em que aprenderam aritmética básica. Por fim, a experiência de língua dos participantes não teve significância quanto à acurácia e o tempo de resposta dos mesmos

Dificuldades encontradas por veterinários oficiais FEI na avaliação do trote durante provas de resistência equestre : inquérito internacional

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina VeterináriaA resistência equestre é a segunda disciplina da Federação Equestre Internacional (FEI) mais praticada. A taxa de eliminação pode atingir 60%, sendo a claudicação a principal causa de eliminação e de insatisfação para com os veterinários. Este inquérito teve como objetivo determinar os fatores que dificultam a avaliação da claudicação, em provas de resistência equestre, por veterinários oficiais da FEI (VOE), bem como avaliar a sua recetividade a um método objetivo como ferramenta adjuvante. Responderam ao inquérito 76 VOE, dos quais 53 consideraram ser difícil definir claudicação significativa no contexto de provas de resistência equestre. Dos fatores identificados como obstáculos à avaliação do trote destacam-se a condução inadequada do cavalo (95%), o mau comportamento do cavalo (86%) e a pista de trote inadequada (83%). Verificou-se que 95% dos inquiridos foram confrontados devido a decisão de eliminar um cavalo por claudicação. Dos mesmos inquiridos, 75% mostraram-se recetivos à utilização de metodologias objetivas na avaliação da claudicação. Os resultados deste inquérito demonstram que a avaliação do trote, no contexto das provas de resistência equestre, é uma tarefa difícil e independente da experiência do VOE, ingrata pelos conflitos frequentes com cavaleiros e que um método objetivo na avaliação do trote poderia eventualmente minimizar estes problemas.ABSTRACT - Challenges found by Official Endurance Veterinarians in trot evaluation in endurance events: An international survey - Endurance riding is the second most popular Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) discipline. The elimination rates from endurance rides can reach 60%, being lameness the main cause of elimination and disagreement. This survey aims to identify factors that can be obstacles to lameness evaluation during endurance rides by official endurance veterinarians FEI (OEV), as well as to assess their receptiveness to an objective method of evaluation as an auxiliary tool. Seventy-six OEV answered this survey, where 53 considered being difficult to define lameness during endurance rides. From the factors identified as barriers to lameness assessment stands out: trotting horse improperly (95%), horse bad behavior (86%) and unappropriated alley (83 %). It was found that 95% of OEV had been confronted due to decision of eliminate a horse by lameness, and 75% were receptive to the use of objective methods in the evaluation of lameness. The survey results showed that lameness evaluation in the context of endurance rides is a difficult task, independent from individual experience, ungrateful due to frequent conflicts and an objective method for trot evaluation could possibly minimize these problems

Performance of in silico tools for the evaluation of UGT1A1 missense variants

Variations in the gene encoding uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 (UGT1A1) are particularly important because they have been associated with hyperbilirubinemia in Gilbert’s and Crigler–Najjar syndromes as well as with changes in drug metabolism. Several variants associated with these phenotypes are nonsynonymous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs). Bioinformatics approaches have gained increasing importance in predicting the functional significance of these variants. This study was focused on the predictive ability of bioinformatics approaches to determine the pathogenicity of human UGT1A1 nsSNPs, which were previously characterized at the protein level by in vivo and in vitro studies. Using 16 Web algorithms, we evaluated 48 nsSNPs described in the literature and databases. Eight of these algorithms reached or exceeded 90% sensitivity and six presented a Matthews correlation coefficient above 0.46. The best-performing method was MutPred, followed by Sorting Intolerant from Tolerant (SIFT). The prediction measures varied significantly when predictors such us SIFT, polyphen-2, and Prediction of Pathological Mutations on Proteins were run with their native alignment generated by the tool, or with an input alignment that was strictly built with UGT1A1 orthologs and manually curated. Our results showed that the prediction performance of some methods based on sequence conservation analysis can be negatively affected when nsSNPs are positioned at the hypervariable or constant regions of UGT1A1 ortholog sequences

Desempenho de ferramentas in silico: Avaliação de variantes de mutações missense do gene UGT1A1

Variations in the gene encoding uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 (UGT1A1) are particularly important because they have been associated with hyperbilirubinemia in Gilbert’s and Crigler-Najjar syndromes as well as with changes in drug metabolism. Several variants associated with these phenotypes are non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs). Bioinformatics approaches have gained increasing importance in predicting the functional significance of these variants. This study was focused on the predictive ability of bioinformatics approaches to determine the pathogenicity of human UGT1A1 nsSNPs, which were previously characterized at the protein level by in vivo and in vitro studies. Using sixteen web algorithms, we evaluated 48 nsSNPs described in the literature and databases. Eight of these algorithms reached or exceeded 90% sensitivity and six presented a Matthews correlation coefficient above 0.46. The best performing method was MutPred, followed by SIFT. The prediction measures varied significantly when predictors such us SIFT, Polyphen-2 and PMUT were run with their native alignment generated by the tool, or with an input alignment that was strictly built with UGT1A1 orthologs and manually curated. The capacity of the SNP prediction methods can vary according to the available structural information and the MSA employed. We verified that methods primarily based on protein structural information such as SNPeffect failed to give reliable information for the UGT1A1 variants. There are numerous available evolutionary tools that do not allow the user to select the alignments. One of the concepts that our data suggest is that the selection of user inputs improves the performance of these methods. Our data also suggest that whenever possible, the user should consider optimizing the sequence alignment employed. The performance study of SNP predictors using a set of functionally well-characterized variants is essential to help redirect the in silico analysis of a particular gene.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Caminhos do saber Arukwayene nas águas da história: a emergência da historicidade Palikur em narrativas de memória

Os Palikur-Arukwayene são um povo indígena que vivem em ambos os lados da fronteira entre o Brasil e a Guiana Francesa e, juntamente com Karipuna, Galibi-Marworno e Galibi-Kalinã, constituem o que a literatura convencionou chamar de povos indígenas de Oiapoque. Este artigo aborda a emergência da “historicidade” deste povo a partir das narrativas dos sábios Wet e Tebekwe e, ao mesmo tempo, analisa como estes sábios, de forma singular e distinta, são reconhecidos e referenciados por esta sociedade. A “latência” de saberes palikur-arukwayene emerge dos estudos e pesquisas que vem sendo desenvolvidas há alguns anos com o povo e, em decorrência disso, fomentam a (re)escrita da história a partir das interseções com as narrativas de vida, relatos de experiências, transmissão e compartilhamento de conhecimentos dos sábios. Neste percurso, fizemos o registro e documentação de narrativas que possibilitam considerar que muitos dos saberes do povo mantem-se vivos e presentes nas lembranças e reminiscências de memórias dos antigo

O Parque estadual do Caracol através do perfil dos seus visitantes

La presente ricerca ha come obiettivo generale la descrizione del profilo dei visitatori del Parco statale di Caracol nello Stato brasiliano di Rio Grande do Sul. Per l’indagine si è impiegato il metodo statistico descrittivo utilizzando per la raccolta dei dati un questionario contenente domande aperte e chiuse. È stato somministrato a duecento visitatori nell’aprile 2011. Il Parco statale di Caracol è stato istituito nel 1973 su una superficie di 100 ettari e sua principale attrazione è la Cascata di Caracol.Este estudio tiene como objetivo describir el perfil general de los visitantes que han pasado una estancia en el Parque estadual do Caracol. Para el estudio se utilizó el método estadístico descriptivo, siendo utilizado para la recolección de datos, el cuestionario, de carácter cuantitativo, que contenía preguntas abiertas y cerradas. Celebrada en abril de 2011, el muestreo incluyó 200 visitantes. La creación del Parque estadual do Caracol fue en 1973, con una superficie total de 100 hectáreas, presentando como principal atracción la Cascata do Caracol.The present study has as its overall objective the description of the profile of visitors to the Caracol State Park. The survey employed the descriptive statistical method, using a questionnaire with open and closed questions for data collection. It was filled out by two hundred visitors in April 2011. The Caracol State Park was established in 1973 on an area of 100 hectares and its main attraction is the Caracol Waterfall